Broadcast PR: Tech Watch



Smart speaker ownership is growing fast and with it radio executives are having to quickly develop strategies to take advantage of listeners using them to ‘tune in’ to their favourite stations.

“Alexa, play Radio 4” is so much easier than opening up an app, flicking through a smart TV EPG or clicking on a radio website, that radio listening is now the 5th most popular activity among US smart speaker owners after asking a question, streaming music, checking weather and setting a timer. Figures come from voicebot.ai released in March 2018.

All this has helped listening to digital radio in the UK (across all platforms) reach over 50% of all radio listening for the first time, up from 47% last year, according to radio research body Rajar’s report from May 2018.

In broadcast PR, two things stand out immediately:

Radio is still an important element in the broadcast PR mix, with large audience reach both live and on-demand.

Radio stations will soon develop smart speaker ‘skills’ with Amazon and Google, for example, to allow the listener more specific access to content via voice commands. “Play Radio 5 Live Drive Time” could become possible and in turn help to boost audience figures and ‘worth’ in broadcast PR campaigns.

If you would like to know more about tailoring your story to the broadcast media and video content production, please call Mark Jones on +44 7967 353 727

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