ASIA

The awardees of the first ever Radioinfo Asia Podcast of the Year awards were invited to speak at Radiodays Asia 2023 in Kuala Lumpur.Radioinfo founder Steve Ahern presented the awards in front of an enthusiastic crowd on the second day of the event, dubbed Podcast Day by organizers.The winner of the major podcast award is the Japanese-American true crime podcast The Evaporated, produced by Campside Media and hosted by Shoko Plambeck and Jake Adelstein. The two hosts explore the Japanese phenomenon of jouhatsu – to disappear suddenly, literally evaporate– while also tracking down Adelstein’s missing former accountant.“We really think audio media and journalism share similar struggles with engagement and relevance, and this is just one way we see them evolving together for the future,” said the hosts in their acceptance speech.The indie podcast award winner is SPH Media podcast The Reading Room, a lighthearted, conversational podcast hosted by Tan Yi Li and Chang Cheng Yao. The Singapore-based Mandarin language podcast is described as being “for book lovers who like to delve beyond the book and at the same time enjoy anecdotes of life.” The Reading Room began from a conversation between Tan and Chang and grew into a project that has so far been running for 3 years. It introduces Chinese books from multiple different countries to readers.Tan also presented at the 25 Ideas In 25 Minutes event held in a later session, where she outlined her 5C’s of podcast success: Communicate, Collaborate, Consistency, be Creative and build Community.Also announced during the session were The People’s Choice Winners of the Radioinfo Podcast Asia Awards. The winning podcasts, Land Before Bedtime and Viva la Vida, received the most votes in a staggering pool of about 1,000 respondents.Radiodays Asia was held September 5th and 6th in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The event is a collaboration between broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific and Radiodays Europe, which organizes the world’s largest radio, audio, and podcasting conference.Last year’s in-person event, also held in Kuala Lumpur, saw over 300 attendees from over 30 countries, and it is estimated that even more have come this year due to the reduced COVID-19 travel restrictions.Reporter: Amy Yoshida-Plambeck […]

Timi Siytangco, from Acast Singapore, shared results from the Acast Sounds Smart Southeast Asia 2023 report about podcast listening and trends in South East Asia.When the aim is to monetise podcasts, data is one tool that can be used to persuade sponsors and advertisers.The report found that 53% listen to podcasts daily or multiple times in a week. This is equivalent to 30-120 minutes of attention daily . Podcasts accompany the listener through the day.Sales pitch tips:– People look forward to listening– Instead of passive listening people usually listen with focus.– People choose podcasts to fuel their minds – Brands can be part of the conversation, with authenticity and relevance“Remember that podcasts drive consideration, word of mouth and conversation,” said Siytanco.The Acast report is available here […]

“Everything you say about India is true and also the opposite is true,” said Sreermaan Thiagarajan, CEO of aawaz.com, a podcast distribution company.“So there is an audience for everything and this applies to podcasts.” “We control the distribution of Podcasts and guarantee they are ‘Mom safe,’” he said.Thiagarajan has developed a framework that has been informed by the Indian audience data.He begins by asking, Who are the listeners, and has broken them down into 4 segments:
The 1%ees are the Globalised Indians (10 million+)
The “Desi” who speaks English (110 mil+) is the regular guy you meet in the workplace
The “Desi” who speaks an Indian language only (500 mil+)
The rest (600 mil+) have limited or no internet
Podcast listeners follow popular actors in Indian podcasts and the podcast platforms they use.He notes that YouTube is the real competition for podcasts as every age group watches content on Youtube.The main topics of audience interest in India include: stories, spiritual, news and comedy.The Content Framework for each audience segment is: Contact: [email protected] […]

Guang Jin Yeo from Singapore, gave an overview of what works and what doesn’t across different podcast markets in Japan, Korea and South East Asia, also focusing on Asian podcast listening habits.Speaking at RadioDays Asia’s podcast day, Yeo based his analysis on recent GWI data sets. He believes that, “the time to enter the podcast market is now. The data shows that within 3+/- points (with the exception of Japan), podcasts have equal or more listenership than radio.”Drilling down on the data further he focused on Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam to explain the differences within the Asian market. Japan has the lowest podcast listenership, Indonesia has the highest podcast listenership and Vietnam has twice the audiobook habit of the US.One factor that has made a difference to growth is the regulatory environments in each country.“Japanese legislation makes it difficult to grow the podcast market,“ Yeo said. “Copyright infringement involves 10 years in prison, where as in other Asian regions it’s 5 years.”Indonesia is experiencing its ‘Serial moment of podcast awareness and rapid growth according to Yeo. “Indonesians keep coming back to listen to the chat style format, popularised by Deddy Corbuzier, who is seen as the ‘Joe Rogan’ of Indonesia.”‘Rintek Sedu’ is another podcast listeners have embraced as it connects with their emotional needs. One listener commented: “Life is complex so they laugh … and cry with Rintek Sedu”The Indonesian market also has less access to books, which is also a factor in podcast growth.A knowledge of cultural expectations also increases market understanding. “Vietnamese enjoy audiobooks because radio in Vietnam has always been scripted, which makes that style of audio compatible with listening habits. This contrasts with Indonesia’s off the cuff style of audio content, and Indonesia also has a strong culture of learning.”“The audiobook ecosystem in Vietnam shows that listeners who want to listen enough are willing to pay, that there is room for start ups that facilitate audio books,  and that there are writers keen to develop audio books,” he said.In Vietnam, the culture of learning also extends into podcasts. The top 5 Vietnamese podcast categories are: Education, Arts, Society and Culture, Business, Music.Other interesting podcasts in Singapore and Malaysia include: “The final take away is to unlock the next billion creators in the region by going deeper, wider and harder,” said Yeo.Related reports:Podcasting: Recent trends and future goals #RDA23 […]

James Cridland, Editor of Podnews, looked back at the last twelve months in podcasting trends, news, and growth at RadioDays Asia, then looked forward to the kind of industry that should be built for the future.Changes in the previous 12 months were:– Spotify cut 200 podcast jobs, 2% of the workforce due to lack of revenue for the investment made.– Youtube podcasting is coming to Asia.– On demand audio is now more popular in the US than live audio.In the UK podcast listening has grown dramatically  since 2015. The recent survey data (RAJAR MIDAS, March 23) show the following trends:– 93% of people listen to podcasts alone– 78% of all podcast listening is done on a mobile phone– 63% listen to more than half of their downloaded podcasts– 62% of all podcast listening is done while at homeAccording to Cridland, goals for the future of podcasting should be:– more shows people want to hear– more focus needs to be on the amount of time people are spending on engagement with podcasts, rather than just downloads, as this can be monitised– Spotify needs to be based on a consumption model.Cridland ended with a warning about locking down too much behind single platforms and paywalls. “The history of podcasting has always been open. New features can be added including RSS which keeps podcasts open.  Be careful of the BBC model which stations like Danish Radio have adopted, as they are locking down content and have a closed model. The focus needs to be on the open podcast model because it helps growth.”James Cridland’s overview was followed by a series of experts from the Asia region who gave their analysis of the Asia market. […]

“CADA is a youth media brand not just a radio station,” Emily Copeland told RadioDays Asia, providing insights into how to attract youth audiences.The station features “one of the most diverse lineups of talent” and has “extended the traditional commercial radio format” to multiple platforms to create a content ecosystem.“Our audience keeps bouncing around in our ecosystem,” which has millions of connections each week, said Copeland. The station is now the number one station in breakfast and drive shifts in the DAB+ Sydney ratings. In six months the station had achieved 1 million podcast downloads of programs such as Flex and Frooms breakfast show and, in the first six months of this year has 20 million TikTok engagements and 77 million on Instagram.“There were a lot of negative headlines around youth audiences and radio, there was discussion about young listeners turning away from radio. But I felt strongly that the problem was not that audiences were turning away, but they radio was not offering them what they wanted in the format they wanted it.”The success of CADA is so far showing that young audiences will embrace radio if the right approach is adopted. Strategies and learnings from the station, which is about 18 months old, include:
18-29s spend a lot of time on their phones, looking for content and connections. These are two things that radio is excellent at providing if you get it right.
The average young listener has a listening span of 8 seconds… our content “needs to move at the speed of youth culture… There are few mediums that can move at that speed, but radio can.”
CADA saw its opportunities for success in:
Multiple platforms
Representation of the target audience
Mainstream – popular music and culture
“When we surveyed our potential audience they said they felt overlooked.” They did not find themselves represented in media and there was no content that interested them. According to Copeland, youth offerings felt vacuous, too focused on celebrity, or too opinionated and political.So what did they want? Copeland asked them and this is what she found:
They dislike ads but don’t hate advertising
They value audience participation and live talent, which is something that music streamers like Spotify cannot offer
They found traditional commercial radio content anxiety producing
They believe that community is important and want to fell part of a community
“To them it doesn’t matter where the content sits… They trust certain content creators just as much as they trust the media platform or brand and station.”With these insights Copeland developed a vision and strategy for CADA, which was originally a Sydney hip hop format.=“We wanted CADA to stand for belonging, to reach audiences wherever they are consuming it. Talent, diversity and cultural credibility have come through faces and voices representing young Australia today.”The station chose on air talent that didn’t necessarily have a background in radio, what they were looking for was that the talent connected with youth audiences. “We have a 3.6 million reach, we reflect what young Australia looks like today.”The station has both a traditional radio studio and a video production studio, which allows it to turn around content at a fast pace.Because the on air talent already have established public roles and other projects, they are not always able to commit to full days at the station, so Copeland has found ways to work smarter to get the most from the talent and devoted a lot of time to helping them learn the new radio environment.We take a content multiplier approach, a one hour recording can make 3 hours of radio and be also be recut for social content.Advertising is integrated into content whenever possible, using a partnerships driven content model. Relevance and community are the keys to attracting the young audience. “Reflect their interests and be where that are,” she said.RadioDays Asia is taking place in Kuala Lumpur this week. More reports on radioinfo.asia. […]