I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and
every week or so I write a newsletter all about
the future of radio and international radio trends.
And this is it for February the 12th, 2025, BBC
Audio for international users. Embargoes and
in -advanced briefings are always slightly odd
at the best of times. You chat amiably with a
senior member of staff, but nothing can be used
until X date. It's a helpful thing for journalists.
But in this case, an in -advanced briefing with
a PR person who had to wake at 4 .30 his time
to tell you that there's a strict embargo on
using the information until X date was rather
undermined by an announcement containing much
of this information being posted by the same
company six hours beforehand. The BBC, for it
was them, made an announcement about the new
availability of audio on the BBC .com website.
which appeared in my news aggregation tools that
I use for pod news, so I quickly blogged about
it before a call unveiling much of this information
to me under an embargo that the BBC had already
comprehensively broken six hours previously.
A bit awkward. Anyway, the substance of the public
announcement, and respecting additional detail
which remains under embargo, is there's a new
website for international users called BBC Audio.
and it offers podcasts and live radio for international
users. For me, it's now linked from the desktop
website, but not from the app. I think it's rolling
out. The FAQ includes a question saying, will
I lose all my subscribed and bookmarked content
from BBC Sounds, which looks very much to me
as if this is a replacement for international
users for BBC Sounds. The FAQ says that nothing
will be transferred. And in my opinion, that's
not true, because the new BBC Audio website has
a continue listening rail, which knows what shows
I listened to on BBC Sounds, which is nice. The
only radio stations on BBC Audio are BBC World
Service. and BBC Radio 4, due to rights restrictions,
it says. No local radio, no international music
radio. Now, the FAQ says that most of the BBC's
programmes are available to listen to on demand,
but in reality, none of the BBC's programmes
on World Service or Radio 4 are available as
catch -up radio on the BBC Audio website, although
many of them are available in podcast form. And
that's probably fair enough, because the podcasts
are supported by Advertising Outside the UK,
as we're told on every podcast. All the podcasts
will start with the BBC Sounds ident still, and
I hope that goes away, almost as unloved by me
as the note that this podcast is sponsored by
Advertising Outside the UK. Now, not calling
myself a radio futurologist or anything, but
back in November, I predicted this might happen.
Given the messy experience using BBC Sounds,
advertising in BBC Sounds simply couldn't work
alongside music content in a grey area of music
rights due to an accident of history. And it
looks as if I got it pretty well correct. I'm
pretty delighted that BBC Radio 4 will continue
to exist for international listeners though.
And assuming that this replaces BBC Sounds and
assuming too that BBC Domestic Music Radio will
eventually be geo -blocked outside the UK. There
will be many people disappointed at losing Radio
1 or Radio 2 or Six Music, and I've got sympathy
with that. But also, I want the BBC to succeed.
And in order to succeed, it needs to be as commercially
nimble as it possibly can be outside the UK.
And it can't afford to both earn from non -UK
audiences and make music radio available. So
this is a necessary step. And at last, a strategy.
Radio Monitor released stats suggesting that
radio is significantly bigger than Spotify. Sabrina
Carpenter's Espresso got 1 .6 billion streams
on Spotify globally in 2024, but was heard 1
.3 billion times on radio in the UK alone. Radio
is, on average, 10 times bigger than Spotify,
the data suggests. Along with Raja numbers, BBC
Sounds released its consumption data for quarter
four 2024. Its weekly audience grew by three
percent quarter on quarter. Now, it's not clear
to me how that splits UK versus non -UK or even
if it does. Be interesting to see what happens
if stroke when BBC Sounds gets closed. In Australia,
the big media story is a fill -in radio presenter
alleging unlawful termination of her contract
by the ABC. Notice how I say nothing about that.
Apart from, you know. The fact. Kyle and Jackie
O's new advertising in Melbourne is quite funny.
It says, thank you for making us number one in
Melbourne. And then somebody has hilariously
crossed out the number one and written number
eight. Kyle now does have a health scare, though.
And whatever I think of that show, the man deserves
good luck and good health. So best of luck to
him. I'm told that last week I mentioned the
average age figures from Raja. And I'm told that
they were based on listeners, not on hours. So
a 53 -year -old who listens to two minutes of
Radio 1 in a week before his ears bleed and he
retreats to Scott Mills on Radio 2 will count
just as much as a 15 -year -old who listens to
Radio 1 for six hours a day. I would be fascinated
at seeing average age by listener hour for each
station if anybody wants to do that. And finally,
a favour if you produce podcasts or you are otherwise
responsible for getting podcasts out there. I
will be super grateful if you'd fill in the PodNews
report card. Your data is important to each of
the big podcast platforms who partially rely
on data from this survey to get developer resource
internally. It'll take you less than 10 minutes.
PodNews .net slash report card, please and thank
you. Next, I'm speaking at Radio Days Europe
in Athens in Greece in early March. Perhaps I
will see you there. And thank you to my many
supporters, including Broadcast Radio, Radio
King and Media Realm. If you would like to support
my work in any way, you can buy me a coffee.
Buymeacoffee .com slash James Cridland is where
to go. Or you can do that with Stripe in a link
in our show notes. I'm on Blue Sky as well and
on Masters. and my website is james .cridland
.net and you can find much more information about
me and if I can help you any further. But until
next time, keep listening.