ASIA

Following the government’s decision to create a new public media entity by merging RNZ and TVNZ, nine Establishment Board members have been announced to lead the creation of the new broadcasting body.These include corporate bosses and a former minister.Minister for Broadcasting and Media Kris Faafoi announced former MP and New Zealand First broadcasting spokeswoman Tracey Martin as the chair of the board.Other members include Former MediaWorks chief executive Michael Anderson and current TVNZ board chair and Briscoe Group director Andy Coupe, TVNZ’s Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver, Bailey Mackey – an NZ Rugby director and Māori Broadcasting Advisory Panel member, Dr Jim Mather, RNZ board chair and former Māori Television chair, ANZ Bank executive and RNZ board member Peter Parussini, former Kordia Group chair John Quirk and tech entrepreneur and augmented reality producer Aliesha Staples.As of 2020, TVNZ had revenues of $340m and 390 staff, while RNZ had a staff strength of 310 with $50m revenues.Faafoi said the new entity would be multi-platform and designed to reach new and existing audiences. It would be built on the best of the TV and radio entities and could better meet the challenges of changing technology and global competition.Legislation to create the entity would be introduced to Parliament in the next few months.The public would then have the chance to give feedback through the select committee stage. […]

Radiodays Europe is now just a week away, and radioinfo’s Wayne Stamm chatted to organiser Rosie Smith about some of the features of this year’s event.The conference begins on Sunday in Malmö with the Radiodays Europe Women session that features Siobhan Kenny who stepped down as CEO of Radiocentre, the UK’s industry body for commercial radio, in July 2021, and Daria Suvorova, a Founder and Host of the Women Authors of Achievement (WAA) Podcast.The Youth session takes place of Sunday with four sessions that will cover podcasting and radio with speakers that include Teresa Hanratty, Learning Waves, Ireland, Signe Muusman & Christian Frederiksen, DR Talent, and DR Sam Bailey, Radio Academy. Sunday night will also see the European Premiere of Worst to First, the true story of Z100 NY. There is a focus on events in the Ukraine with two journalists from the public broadcast arena in the Ukraine who will be discussing the events as they saw them unfold and what is happening with media in their country right now, and what the radio industry can do to help the situation in their homeland.Caroline Beasley is talking about US regional radio in the digital age,  SCA’s Grant Blackley is heading a discussion on Digital Transformation – The journey from Radio to a Digital Audio Powerhouse, and there will be sessions on the connected car, programming for youth, podcasting, audience engagement, the rise of audio drama and whole lot more.Rosie’s full interview with Wayne is below, and she highlights some of the surprises for this years program.[embedded content]The full program is here. […]

According to the first GfK Radio Audience Measurement for 2022, Media Prima Audio (MPA) continued to position itself as one of the most influential radio networks in Malaysia.The Radio Audience Measurement study was done over six weeks and with a combined methodological approach with a sample size of 6,639 people.MPA kicked off the year with a full lineup of fresh content, new talents, creative campaigns, and activation resulting in promising audience numbers.Hot FM retains its position as one of the biggest radio stations in the country, reaching 3,513,000 listeners weekly. Hot FM is the leading station with the highest number of followers on Twitter with 1.8 million followers and TikTok with 1 million followers. Hot FM has also executed a few campaigns since the start of the year such as Hot JL, Hot FM Rakyat Rangers Pegang Apa Tu?, #RewangRakyatRangers, and Hot FM Peralihan ke Endemik Showcase. These campaigns allowed listeners to win cash prizes and engage with well-known announcers, namely Fara Fauzana, AG, and Fad that lead the Hot FM breakfast show, Rakyat Rangers.Buletin FM has reached a total of 263,000 weekly listeners, an increase of 31,000 weekly listeners in comparison to survey 2, 2021. In addition, Buletin FM strengthened its position as a credible radio station for PMEBs with a listenership increase of 40%. Buletin FM has also presented a few campaigns such as Usahawan Buletin FM to help promote small local businesses and Masterclass Buletin, which invites guests to come on the show to share educational business information with the listeners.Buletin FM has reached a total of 263,000 weekly listeners, an increase of 31,000 weekly listeners in comparison to survey 2, 2021. In addition, Buletin FM strengthened its position as a credible radio station for PMEBs with a listenership increase of 40%. Buletin FM has also presented a few campaigns such as Usahawan Buletin FM to help promote small local businesses and Masterclass Buletin, which invites guests to come on the show to share educational business information with the listeners.Fly FM recorded 1,033,000 weekly listeners. There is also an increase in listenership for the Breakfast Show by 70% and Drive Show by 32% for the age group of 30 – 34. Fly FM has doubled up its exclusive listeners to 96,000 listeners weekly. Fly FM also ran campaigns such as Fly FM Boomerang Tracks, which allowed listeners to win cash prizes by guessing the title and the artist of the boomerang tracks. For Fly Five Beats, listeners had to identify the name of the artists and the title of all five beats to win cash prizes.MPA’s Chinese radio station, 8FM has now recorded 447,000 listeners weekly, with an increase of listeners for the age group of 10-14 and 20-29. There is also an increase of 54% of listeners with a household income of RM8,000 and above. Campaigns presented by 8FM include SPM Saya Pun Mampu, 过好生活之你好夏天 (8FM Hello Summer) and 过好生活之跟我揾食 (8FM Food Award) led by 8FM breakfast announcers, Royce and Angeline. These campaigns allow listeners to call in and stand a chance to win cash prizes. […]

Facebook has confirmed that it is pulling out of podcasting, just a year after entering the market.A change in focus appears to be the main reason with promotion of its “Metaverse” and a shift in attention to its main feed and some of its newer products like Instagram Reels.According to a note sent to partners, people will no longer be able to upload podcasts from this week, and according to Bloomberg, it will discontinue both its short-form audio product Soundbites and remove its central audio hub.In an email a Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg, “We’re constantly evaluating the features we offer so we can focus on the most meaningful experiences”, adding that they didn’t have a specific date on when Soundbites and the audio hub would shut down but it will be in the “coming weeks.”Facebook isn’t planning to alert users to the fact that podcasts are leaving the platform, leaving that instead to publishers.It doesn’t mean the end to audio on the platform as the Live Audio rooms will be integrated into Facebook Live and users will now be able to upload audio as well as  audio and video. […]

According to a report just issued by Listen Notes, there are at least 2,836,347 podcasts and 132,691,458 episodes in the world.And their report says that the number of new podcasts is declining with only 8,453 released in April as opposed to over 16,000 in March, over 17,000 in February and 20,454 in January.The boom of new podcasts during the beginning of the pandemic has also passed with 1,017,349 new podcasts released in 2020, down to 712,414 last year, and declining even further now as things get back to normal. […]

Lawo’s latest diamond console was on display at the 2022 NAB Show, and radioinfo was given a first hand look by Al Reynolds.The fully native IP surface powers with their Powercord DSP and Audio IO engine.The surface is fully modular allowing endless changes as required and almost unlimited expansion, allowing it to be used as a 2-fader module that is ideal for voice over booths or editor booths, or it can be scaled all the way up to 60 faders with the dual layer support giving the operator access to 120 faders.There are also key extension and rotary extension modules that can go above the fader modules for bigger production applications.The 13.3 inch 1080P multi touch screens are an option addition that sit beautifully on top of the console and give the end-user access. In channel strip mode the user can see level metres, peak and loudness, what processing has been applied to each fader, as well as what busses have been assigned which give a quick visual display of everything on the console.In access mode and because the screen is touch capable, simple things like moving the full 5-band EQ curves can be done by fingertip.To hear more about the Diamond, listen to Al talk to radioinfo’s Wayne Stamm. […]