There is data from earlier in the week about numbers of people watching TV and listening to radio in the UK. They're collapsing even with the elderly. And not just for the BBC. Everyone is moving online but importantly, not to free services. They are embracing the paywall/pay for consumption model. It ties in with a downturn and consumer revolt against advertising, sponsorship and voluntary memberships and desire to pay directly for content people consume. To paraphrase Louis Rossman, payment for service and value.
The awful truth for us is that while everyone agrees about the BBC and even the likes of ITV and Channel 4, we may be critical of the politics and wokeness of Netflix (never forget the fact that Cuties was a thing) but the public just says "shut up and take my money". Same with Disney+, Amazon, Spotify et al. Even if people begrudge the price rises, people are still paying and the churn rates (the percentage of people who leave a service) is still low.
Radio is going the same way too. The BBC is making terrestrial broadcasting legacy platforms, even DAB, and putting everything into its Sounds app. Their commercial counterparts Global and Bauer are dipping their toes into pay radio not to compete with Spotify Free but with Spotify Premium and are now focusing more on apps where they can put their stations behind a paywall. It will be a problem for my Internet radio set as stations move exclusively behind apps and it offers less and less free streams to listen to. I have a shortwave radio but now it's predominately Chinese state broadcasters.
Terrestrial broadcasting is on borrowed time as the mobile phone networks eye up the remaining spectrum for future expansion of bandwidth which is better at penetrating rural areas and indoor spaces as opposed to higher gigahertz frequencies. Networks that can easily outbid the broadcasters by a massive amount. Satellite is going the same way too, Sky is moving toward an Internet streaming future and Virgin Media is following them.
There is data from earlier in the week about numbers of people watching TV and listening to radio in the UK. They're collapsing even with the elderly. And not just for the BBC. Everyone is moving online but importantly, not to free services. They are embracing the paywall/pay for consumption model. It ties in with a downturn and consumer revolt against advertising, sponsorship and voluntary memberships and desire to pay directly for content people consume. To paraphrase Louis Rossman, payment for service and value.
The awful truth for us is that while everyone agrees about the BBC and even the likes of ITV and Channel 4, we may be critical of the politics and wokeness of Netflix (never forget the fact that Cuties was a thing) but the public just says "shut up and take my money". Same with Disney+, Amazon, Spotify et al. Even if people begrudge the price rises, people are still paying and the churn rates (the percentage of people who leave a service) is still low.
Radio is going the same way too. The BBC is making terrestrial broadcasting legacy platforms, even DAB, and putting everything into its Sounds app. Their commercial counterparts Global and Bauer are dipping their toes into pay radio not to compete with Spotify Free but with Spotify Premium and are now focusing more on apps where they can put their stations behind a paywall. It will be a problem for my Internet radio set as stations move exclusively behind apps and it offers less and less free streams to listen to. I have a shortwave radio but now it's predominately Chinese state broadcasters.
Terrestrial broadcasting is on borrowed time as the mobile phone networks eye up the remaining spectrum for future expansion of bandwidth which is better at penetrating rural areas and indoor spaces as opposed to higher gigahertz frequencies. Networks that can easily outbid the broadcasters by a massive amount. Satellite is going the same way too, Sky is moving toward an Internet streaming future and Virgin Media is following them.