Where do Social Media Leave Traditional Broadcast Media?

(The title on the programme)

Graham Mytton

CIBAR, Prague 2011

The Enduring Importance of Shortwave for International

Broadcasting

(My more precise title!)

Graham Mytton

CIBAR Conference

Prague 2011

1985        London 1998        Paris

1986        Paris 1999        Geneva

1987        Hilversum 2000        Cologne

1988        Cologne 2001        Washington

1989        Paris 2002        Stockholm

1990        Madrid 2003        Moscow

1991        London actually in Jan 1992 2004        London

1992        Lisbon 2005        Montreal

1993        Munich 2006        Melbourne

1994        Berne 2007        Paris

1995        Washington 2008        Manila

1996        Prague 2009        Bonn

1997        London 2010        Amsterdam 2011        Prague

List of CIBAR conferences

“Shortwave broadcasting has been in gradual but accelerating decline for years;”

But traditional radio has not been replaced

BBC Global Audience 2010

• 161 million weekly listeners• In 1980 it was 100 million• 53% of the global audience in 2010

accessed BBC WS on shortwave. That was then 85 million listeners, the largest single group of BBC users on any “platform”!

• This was in spite of massive cuts to shortwave over the previous decade

John Tusa, Managing Director BBC World Service 1986 - 1992

If shortwave had been or discovered today instead of eight decades ago it would be hailed as an amazing new technology with great potential for the world we live in today.

Access to locally retransmitted services can be and often are blocked

• Nigeria does not allow any local rebroadcasts of news

• Ivory Coast, Azerbaijan, both Congos and several other countries have blocked local rebroadcasts when local circumstances have changed and governments in these countries have not wanted outside “interference”

Shortwave use declines when political circumstances change!

• In Portugal, Greece, Former Yugoslavia, former East European states and many others, when free media emerged, there was a massive fall in shortwave use

• But shortwave is still a major means of reception in many parts of the world. It is showing amazing vitality and survival

• It has survived massive cut backs and the talking down of it by many senior broadcasters who ought to know better!

Global Shortwave Access and Use

• 2 billion people in the world have access to at least one shortwave capable set at home

• 300 million people use shortwave on a weekly basis to access radio services

• When crises happen, as they often do, the number is increased many times over

• Shortwave use declines not because of new technologies but because of local political changes

• More freedom means less shortwave use!

•BBC World Service issued some promotional postcards a few years ago•It displayed them on the walls all around the building•The photos were of well known people, including world leaders in business, politics, entertainment, arts and more•The main way these WS users listened in the way they said they did was on shortwave.•The photos soon had to be removed or withdrawn. The BBC was cutting back on the means whereby they could continue to listen

Huge changes in technology over the past 20 years

• But another change has had as much, if not more, impact on human communications

• It has been the deregulation of media, especially broadcast media

• In 1996, when the process had been going for about 6 years I produced the following charts, showing how control on broadcast media had changed, globally and region by region with predictions for the next 6 years.

The charts show first what the situation was like in 1990, then 1996 and then a prediction for 2002

Definitions:

Monopoly means where radio and TV are under state control with little or no exception. This situation was true in most countries in Africa and Asia as well as communist states in Europe

Pluralist means where the state allows private radio and TV with varying degrees of regulation but where independent voices are allowed.

Transitional means that a country is moving from Monopoly to Pluralist

The World's Radio and TV Markets in 1990

Transitional : 13 countries

Pluralist: 60 countries

Monopolies: 98 countries

The World's Radio and TV Markets in1996

Pluralist90 countries

Monopolies49 countries

Transitional53 countries

The World's Radio and TV Markets in2002

Pluralist110 countries

Monopolies21 countries

Transitional26 countries

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Number of domestic radio stations in main or capital city

BBC

Wee

kly

Rea

ch

Supply and Demand:The Relationship of BBC Weekly Reach to the Availability of Domestic Radio Channels

I think I showed this chart first in 1992. It plots weekly audiences for any BBC WS listening against the number of radio stations in that country’s capital city. Clear evidence that while a state monopoly (with few radio services) does not guarantee a large audience, large audiences are not achieved where there is a lot of local choice

Shortwave transmitters Now Obsolete Surely!

Satellite Dishes seen everywhere. These are in Freetown Sierra Leone

Mobile Phones: The fastest ever growth in communications technology?

Millions being spent on further promotion and competition