ASIA

The next ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium event will be organised as an in-person event from the 6-9 March 2023 at Kuala Lumpur. It attracts close to 1,500 participants annually, representing over 350 organisations across the region and beyond.An ever-expanding range of technologies is now on the market, providing broadcasters with important new opportunities. DBS showcases these to help broadcasters make the right decisions.The DBS2023 event, through its conference sessions, panel discussions, focused workshops and masterclasses, presented by eminent experts across the globe, will address challenges, find solutions and share experiences related to digital transition, technology implementation, creative content ideas, and enhancing user experiences.DBS2023 ConferenceDBS2023 Conference sessions are organised as panel sessions with multiple speakers presenting on topics related to a session theme. Engage in thought-provoking discussions in the conference.DBS2023 Workshops and MasterclassesThe DBS2023 event will also include Workshop and Masterclass sessions that are deemed to be more focused on a specific topic/solution or product(s) by a specific vendor.Submit your Speaking Request at CALL FOR SPEAKERS – ABU DBS 2023 […]

Mediacorp expands its audio reach to capture 3.8 million listeners weekly, as its roster of free-to-air and digital radio stations continue to be the premier choice for 88.6% of all adults in Singapore who tune in for over 10 hours weekly. According to the latest Nielsen Radio Survey, the company also commands 83.8% of the radio market share, eclipsing that of competitors.In a testament to Mediacorp’s success in staying ahead of consumer preferences and market needs with its customer-centric and multi-platform strategy, listenership on the company’s digital radio network achieved an impressive compound annualised growth (CAGR) of 17% over five years since 2018. This marks the fourth consecutive year of continuous gains on the digital front to reach a record 1.63 million listeners weekly, or 91.6% of all digital listeners.The findings are based on the latest Nielsen Radio Survey conducted from August to October 2022, which tracked radio listenership via diary recordings by 2,014 adults aged 15 and above, with the results weighted by age, sex and race to be representative of the Singapore population.Mediacorp sweeps nine out of top 10 positions, top five are Mediacorp stationsAs the leading radio network, Mediacorp’s radio stations are the preferred choice among key audience segments across gender, age, race and occupation4 . As its reach continues on an upward trajectory for the fourth consecutive year, its capacity to attract, captivate and retain audiences is clear: nine out of the top 10 spots in the ranking of stations is a Mediacorp radio station, with the top five belonging to the company. Out of the 11 hours and 46 minutes that listeners spend tuning in to Singapore’s radio stations weekly, 10 hours and 27 minutes (88.8%) were on Mediacorp’s radio stations.The reigning champion is Chinese station YES 933, boasting a record 964,000 listeners (22.4% of weekly listenership) after attracting an additional 30,000 listeners (+3.2%) since the previous survey6 . As the first choice for a variety of audience segments, including Chinese aged 15+, millennials aged between 25 and 34, premier audiences and parents, it simultaneously claimed the accolade of top digital station with 457,000 digital listeners, and recorded an overall engagement rate of 6 hours 38 minutes.Placing overall second by a narrow margin, but coming in first on both market share and engagement rate is LOVE 972, with 951,000 listeners (22.1% of weekly listenership) who tuned in for 10 hours 22 minutes weekly. This represents an increase of 1 hour 28 minutes since the last survey, which also marks the highest jump in audience engagement across all stations surveyed. Beyond its list of accolades, the station is also the prime choice among women aged 15+, and notably, silvers aged 55+, with whom it achieved a listenership growth of 11%.In overall third place, CLASS 95 continues to be the top English radio station. Following a 3.3% increase in reach, the station recorded 877,000 listeners (20.4% of weekly listenership) who spent an average time of 4 hours 30 minutes listening weekly. Beyond establishing itself as the preferred station among men aged 15+ and PMEBs (professionals, managers, executives and businessmen), the station also achieved a near doubling in digital listenership from 231,000 to 446,000, marking the highest increase among all stations surveyed.In fourth place is CAPITAL 958, which reached 668,000 listeners (15.5% of weekly listenership) and recorded an engagement rate of 10 hours 5 minutes. As a close runner-up to LOVE 972 among silver audiences aged 55+, the station grew 15,000 digital listeners since the last survey6 , marking the third consecutive year of growth on the digital front.Coming in at fifth place for the second year in a row is Malay station Warna 942, which celebrates a highest ever reach of 529,000 listeners (12.3% of weekly listenership) who tuned in for 9 hours 27 minutes weekly. Having recorded a stunning 89.9% increase in digital listenership from 109,000 to 207,000, it is the undisputed top station among Malays, and comes in third among Indians aged 15+. Following closely behind in seventh place is 987, which records 481,000 listeners and retains the honour of being the top station among those between 15 and 24 years old, growing its reach by 51.3% to reach 174,000 listeners. This includes a steady growth in digital listenership, which increased by 80,000 since the last survey6 to hit a record 270,000 listeners. Following closely behind in eighth place is GOLD 905, with 408,000 listeners who spend 4 hours 10 minutes tuning in to the station weekly.Breaking into the top 10 leaderboard for the first time ever is the nation’s preferred English news station CNA938 in ninth place, with a weekly reach of 380,000. This includes a digital listenership of 292,000, representing a 79.1% growth in digital reach, or 129,000 listeners, since the last survey6 . Also breaking personal bests is Oli 968, the top station among Indians 15+. In tenth place, it achieved a record listenership of 348,000 (8.1% of weekly listenership) with an engagement rate of 6 hours 29 minutes.Meanwhile, listenership on classical music station Symphony 924 has remained largely stable at 214,000 (5.0% of weekly listenership); followed by Ria 897 at 133,000 (3.1% of weekly listenership), making it the third leading station for Malays aged 15+. Digital station Indiego, also made its debut in the survey with 2,000 listeners tuning in weekly to the latest indie music from Singapore and around the world.Digital radio network records fourth consecutive year of growthAs Mediacorp continues to boost its suite of digital offerings including the variety of digital audio content such as podcasts, its digital radio network achieved a fourth consecutive year of growth in listenership, achieving a compound annualised growth (CAGR) of 17% over five years since 2018. This translates into a reach of more than 1.63 million listeners, or nine in ten digital listeners, with close to seven hours of weekly engagement.These results correspond with the uptick in performance for Mediacorp’s digital audio service meLISTEN, which saw a growth of 7.4% this year in monthly average unique visitors7 , which reached to 679,973 unique visitors. In terms of podcast content, downloads spiked 41.1% compared to last year to reach a total of 995,585 average downloads monthly8 .Mediacorp’s Chief Executive Officer, Tham Loke Kheng said: “To be continually recognised as the top audio network in Singapore is not an accolade that Mediacorp takes lightly. We are committed to delivering the finest content to entertain, inform and inspire listeners across all demographic segments, and are proud that the latest Nielsen survey has affirmed our success in doing so. As we celebrate being the preferred audio network for a record 3.8 million listeners, we will continue working hard to curate the music they love, create compelling content they enjoy, and connect with them across our network.” […]

Sierra Automated Systems takes its history of Audio over IP innovation to the next level with SAS Global Connect, a complete command and control structure for SAS and third-party broadcast devices living on local and wide-area networks.SAS Global Connect acts as a software-based NOC for broadcasters to centrally manage entire network operations, and can interface with all components in a broadcast infrastructure from microphones to antennas.It is available immediately in on-premises software and is currently testing containerised cloud software versions, providing customers with flexible deployment options based on operational preferences.A producer in one location can manage simple and advanced remote operations with a single button press, from turning microphones and studio lights on and off to triggering automation systems and transmitter feeds.Users can even originate programs across many locations, such as bringing syndicated programs to air for their scheduled slots across different cities.At the same time, users can monitor the health and status of all devices on the network, and switch to redundant components as required.Co-Owner and VP of Sierra Automated Systems, Al Salci, says, “Broadcasters continue to change the way they operate and diversify their services, from consolidating studios and business operations to implementing self-syndication and remote production strategies. “Following decades of experience supporting local facilities and the backend systems architecture, we now take the important step of helping broadcasters support their primary audio delivery needs for both local and remote locations, and with a solution that makes it easy to operate, maintain and monitor all connected devices.”SAS Global Connect is backwards-compatible with most legacy SAS consoles, routers, audio engines and hardware interface accessories, as well as all modern IP-enabled SAS products and is already rolling out for multiple customers.Hyatt says, “We are now activating SAS Global Connect at nearly 40 locations, including studio facilities and transmitter sites. “SAS Global Connect will be an integral component of our turnkey sales, design, installation and commissioning services for radio broadcasters. This is also a solution we anticipate taking global given that we can deploy the software in the cloud, and connect to a broadcaster’s cloud container in the sky to trigger commands and take control of any component, studio or facility anywhere.” […]

Lite FM, Malaysia, has announced a new lineup for its morning show The Lite Breakfast.New addition, Terry Ong, a familiar household name on radio joins popular energetic host, Asha Gill, every weekday morning, from  6 am to 10 am. Fans can also stream new The Lite Breakfast with Asha and Terry on the SYOK app.Asha is a television host, model, actress, producer, activist and radio announcer who has spent over 25 years in the media industry. In addition, she is a certified life coach and hypnotherapist, with her own private practice.Terry is a motor-mouthed wise-cracking personality with over 18 years experience as a radio announcer. Being of Portuguese-Indian-Chinese descent he simply calls himself Malaysian because Portu-chin-dian requires way too much effort.Many new segments are being introduced on the show, including:
Fun-nance, every week, where Asha and Terry speak with Reggie Koh, host of the finance podcast The Financial Coconut, who will share insights, tips and useful information in a fun way, about finance.
What’s Your Problem?, every week, where Asha and Terry will offer their two cents and expert advice for any problems that listeners might have.
Life Hacks, every week, where the hosts share super simple tips and tricks for making life just a little bit easier.
Remember the Time, every Wednesday, where fans can share their memorable moments and stories with Asha and Terry.
Jukebox Hour, every Friday, where fans can take control of the music playlist and share their favourite songs with announcers to be played on Lite FM. […]

Pioneering streaming and podcast solutions provider StreamGuys has diversified the SGcontrol customer experience through a new API that allows users to create rules and customize functionality for a variety of stream management and content access control applications.SGcontrol was introduced at the 2022 NAB Show as a managed service to offload complex stream management and access control functions from broadcasters. This new open programming environment introduces a self-management option for users who want to program and operate their own geo-targeting, geo-restriction and tokenized authorization mechanisms, for example. The new API also automates SGcontrol programming and functionality, accelerating the deployment of new streams, features and services.“We offer many SaaS solutions to produce, manage, monetize, deliver and measure live and on-demand streaming media, and the SGcontrol managed service backed by our renowned operational support is preferred by customers without internal resources to manage access control capabilities,” said Robert Minnix, Product Manager, StreamGuys. “By unlocking the powerful features of SGcontrol through an open API, our customers now have a powerful development platform to customize their own secure control and management solutions. The self-management option also reduces the manual configuration stages that are often required at the managed service layer.”SGcontrol simplifies media enterprises’ control of how audiences access their content, enabling broadcasters and content providers to improve their market-based monetization initiatives. Applications include geo-targeting by audience location to deliver appropriate regionalized stream variants and geo-restriction to block audience members outside defined regions from accessing content. The new API widens the use case spectrum for SGcontrol customers, including several new custom applications by broadcasters in North America and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region:·       Music Streaming Rights: A US-based collective rights management company now uses SGcontrol to automatically redirect consumers to regional streams for more accurate royalty reporting. SGcontrol limits exposure to foreign audiences, eliminating the need to manage regional access in apps and websites while also reducing the overhead of manual reporting.·       Sports Licensing Restrictions: A regional APAC media enterprise used SGcontrol to restrict geographical access to World Cup content. The customer created rules using SGcontrol’s powerful geo-targeting feature for streaming locally licensed content. As Minnix explains, “There is always a limited scope to who can consume the media as the license holder and rebroadcaster. SGcontrol can take an exact broadcast origin point, such as the latitude and longitude of the studio, and use a precise radius as the restriction boundary.”Eduardo Martinez, Vice President of Technology for StreamGuys, emphasizes that SGcontrol’s benefits for regionalization spans far and wide. “Producing relevant content for diverse markets with a strong sense of branding and content cohesion from coast to coast remains a challenge,” he said. “SGcontrol’s targeting ensures that a single stream source can be repurposed across all broadcast markets, with dynamic ad insertions specific to the locale eliminating the headache of producing individual streams.”Tokenized authorization remains a strong use case for SGcontrol, ensuring that a broadcaster’s live streams cannot be pulled into third-party or unwanted streaming platforms. Integration with StreamGuys’ proven SGpasskey functionality locks the stream, requiring a valid encrypted token for access. SGcontrol then makes authorization decisions based on information baked into the token at its time of generation, such as username and expiration time.“Tokenization has become a favored SGcontrol application for owned and operated media companies seeking a robust access restriction solution for their live streams,” said Martinez. “Moving forward, we see the combined power of geographic targeting and SGpasskey serving as the foundation for a new premium service from StreamGuys.” […]

Today’s radio, tv, and digital selling environments are more demanding than ever. Success with your most productive clients in 2023 will require enhanced sales and communication skills. Valerie Geller will present a free online training seminar next week for media sales people who want to communicate better to achieve improved results for their companies and their clients.In this session you will learn: 
The 3 mistakes sales people make
How you can communicate more effectively
How to tell YOUR story and help clients tell THEIR Stories 
How to never be boring
Discover communication techniques to engage with clients instantly. Valerie will provide proven tips and techniques to transform your approach into a more powerful communicator, seller, and commercial storyteller in this seminar from Local Broadcast Sales.Valerie Geller works as a broadcast consultant, speaker, seminar and workshop leader, and trainer to help broadcasters move to the next level. Geller has consulted and presented seminars and workshops worldwide and has been named multiple times among the 50 Most Influential Women in Radio by Radio Ink Magazine. She received the Rockwell Award for lifetime achievement and contributions to radio broadcasting. She has written four books, including her latest, Beyond Powerful Radio – A Communicators Guide to the Internet Age.In the Asian time zone, the online seminar is on in the early morning of January 11th.Register here for the free seminar. […]