AER conference focusses on radio’s adaptability in the digital world

AER held its annual conference at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday 9th of October to gather relevant stakeholders from the European institutions, the media and tech ecosystem, to discuss radio’s adaptability to the digital world and some of the critical issues facing radio and audio across Europe.

The audio landscape has been changing over the past years, with radio playing a strong role in the audio arena remaining the biggest part of audio listening with 85% of EU citizens listening each week for an average of 2 hrs 22 minutes a day. Most radio listening is on broadcast platforms like FM and DAB+, but the rapid changes in how people listen to radio and receive the entertainment, music, news and information they desire is shifting, and an increasing amount of listening is now on online platforms and connected devices like smart speakers.

Commercial radios’ presence online is essential to reach out to listeners, via their own or via shared websites and applications or via – sometimes dominant – online platforms such as Tune-In, smart speakers or integrated apps.

AER Secretary General, Matt Payton, said: “Radio remains the biggest part of audio listening but faces particular pressures from tech giants and aggregators that are increasingly powerful. These issues and the need for a fair and balanced framework will be of key importance for the EU media agenda. AER welcomed the recently adopted Platform to Business (P2B) Regulation from the European Commission as a first step towards ensuring transparency between online platforms and radios. However, there is some way to go in creating true fairness rules.

This year’s AER Conference was a great opportunity to discuss the importance of online platforms for the future of radio and the challenges and opportunities this creates”.

AER 2019 Conference pictures can be found here http://bruagency.photodeck.com/-/galleries/20191009-aer

The AER 2019 Conference was sponsored by MPN – Musik Promotion Network.