Global Radio illustrates the opportunities for radio’s digital transition

Radio’s future growth depends on its ability to transition its content to a digital space while both maintaining traditional listeners and expanding to younger audiences. This means exploring podcasts, videos, and other types of on-demand digital content. Global Radio is a prime example of how a radio broadcaster can expand its audience in a variety of spaces. 

In Q4 2022, Global Radio reported an all-time record of 26.3 million weekly listeners across all platforms, including on air and its digital platform, Global Player. Their Global Player app hosts a variety of content including live radio, podcasts, videos, and playlists. This space helps transition radio’s traditional listeners to a digital platform while also introducing digital natives to the radio format. Radio is primarily rooted in two genres — news and music — both of which are top podcast genres among consumers. To build on this strength in the digital space, Global Player has both live news radio channels and news podcasts, including News Agents, a daily news podcast hosted by journalists. Moreover, users can further explore news stories in the articles posted on the app. This underscores the legitimacy of radio’s news content and brings radio’s decades of experience in news reporting to a more accessible space. In addition to its live music stations, Global makes a variety of playlists and videos to amplify its music content. Video recordings of their interviews with celebrities, like Lizzo, Mimi Webb, and Tom Grenann, are also shared on social media. Global is capitalising on the blurred lines of audio content — where podcasts become videos, and radio shows become podcasts — to reach a more mainstream audience.

Roles

This report is relevant to the following roles:

Business Strategy