Talking Radio: Grant Goddard

Grant Goddard

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Grant Goddard, radio specialist at Enders Analysis, examines the competition to Global Radio posed by internet-delivered radio and the growing range of wireless devices offered to consumers.

Announcing his plans last week to change the brand names of many of the ailing FM stations acquired from GCap Media, Global Radio chief executive Ashley Tabor made
a passing remark that he listened to his stations outside London "on a wi-fi internet radio".

In one unguarded instant, Tabor put himself in the frame to become the unlikely poster boy for the fledgling internet radio sector. Imagine an ad campaign with Tabor sitting at his desk, smiling at the sounds coming from the wi-fi internet radio in front of him. The strap-line reads: "The UK's biggest radio boss uses an internet radio. If it's right for him, how about you?"

UK commercial radio owners are preoccupied with two pressing issues. First, falling listening and declining revenues pose a major structural threat. Second, the continuing investment required in the lacklustre DAB platform is bleeding the sector's finances dry for almost no return.

The last thing the sector needs now is an emerging platform that could destroy its crumbling monopoly over radio listening/advertising.

Wi-fi radio could be just such a threat. And Tabor's off-the-cuff comment demonstrates that this trojan horse is not hidden within the Global Radio building, but is already prominently positioned on his desk.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer predicted earlier this year that "there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network". If this is correct, then the UK's relatively small commercial radio industry could soon find itself competing against global content providers for attention in a very crowded marketplace.

This is one outcome of the development of wi-fi from being a delivery system mainly for home and office use to becoming a means to keep in touch "on the move" via the growing number of hotspots in cafes, on trains and, soon, in the car.

This year, not a week has passed without some significant development in the delivery of radio to consumers via IP, rather than by FM/AM. Nokia is including the Nokia internet radio application on many of its new phones. Apple's iPhone has wi-fi, and the personalised radio application, Pandora, is one of its most popular downloads.

Microsoft's Zune portable player now includes "channels" that send users a personalised selection of new music. BlackBerry's latest Smartphones offer wi-fi and the Slacker personal radio application, while the updated G2 hardware from Slacker itself automatically sends personalised music to users when within range of wi-fi.

Wi-fi suddenly offers consumers a much wider choice of radio/audio content than DAB will ever achieve, though such innovations do not necessarily herald the death of broadcast radio. I might listen to music from East Africa in my downtime, but I still need local radio to give me the weather forecast before going to work.

However, should Tabor's enthusiasm for wi-fi internet radio technology spread, radio listening would become significantly more fragmented across a wider range of content providers. Whereas Global Radio considers its competitor to be the BBC, once the content pond grows, Tabor could find he has much bigger fish to fry.