Commercial radio doomed?

The UK commercial radio industry is having a hard time.

As has been well reported, the national DAB platform is in bad shape – Channel 4 Radio’s plans have been shelved, and there’s not enough national stations to fill the national slots.

Now, a dire claim has been made… commercial radio could die out within 15 years.

Commercial radio’s advertising revenue has been diminishing, partly due to the credit crunch hitting the ad market generally, and party with the increases in online advertising.

In a recent article on Media Guardian, their Matt Wells talks about “the slow death” of UK commercial radio, with a quote from Enders Analysis that apart from BBC, radio would soon not be commercially viable, and would only survive in the form of “hobbyist” models like podcasting (start early by listening to the Radio & Telly podcast!)

Help may be at hand in the form of the BBC’s “Radio Plus” service – a single online portal for radio stations, similar to iPlayer, but open to both BBC and commercial stations. Initially offering a catch-up service, longer-term plans include offering live pause and series link for radio. The beeb expect the first version”Radio Plus” to be available in the next 12 months.