Reinventing Radio

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Reinventing Radio

• Enhancing One-to-Many with Many-to-Many

Matt Biddulph, Tom Coates, Paul Hammond and Matt
Webb
OReilly Emerging Technology Conference March
14-17 2005
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Radio?
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Radio in the UK

• 90 reach among UK adults
• UK adults listen collectively to over 1 billion
  hours of radio each week
• UK adults listen to an average of 24 hours of
  radio a week

Source RAJAR, Q4 2004
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BBC Radio

• 10 national radio networks
• 76,175 hours of programming broadcast across
  national radio networks in 2003-04
• 32.5 million UK adults listen to BBC radio every
  week

Source RAJAR, Q4 2004 BBC Annual Report 2003/4
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Re-Emerging Tech
Sources Up to 1970 Whos Listening? Robert
Silvey (1973) 1970-1992 Annual Reviews of BBC
Audience Research Findings 1992 onwards RAJAR
BBC Peoples Activities 1974/75
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Re-Emerging Tech

• Suits multitasking
• Increasingly ubiquitous
• On analogue and digital (DAB) radio sets
• On TV (digital cable/terrestrial/satellite)
• On mobile phones (built in FM receivers)
• On the internet

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BBC Radio Player
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Broadcast vs. Network
Radio
Internet
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Radios return path

• Letters
• Phone
• Fax
• E-mail
• SMS

Faster feedback loops between audience and
radio
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Broadcasts limits
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10 hour takeover
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Heres how it worked
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Heres how it worked
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Heres how it worked
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(No Transcript)
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RMi RD Team
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Podcasting
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DAB Java
100 Composers
with Daniel Pike, Jamie Tetlow, Paul Clifford and
Tristan Ferne
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PIPs
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How we work...

• Two-person embedded RD team
• Connected to geek community and early adopters
  outside the BBC
• Work on projects with small multi-disciplinary
  teams from around the organisation
• Rapidly build and iterate prototypes

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Broadcast vs. Network
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Phonetags
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Restating the problem

• Not enough bandwidth to deal with level of
  engagement or to respond effectively
• Need to preserve the voice of the individual and
  retain the value of their contribution
• Need to better reflect the desires of the
  audience in the work that were doing

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Our rough principles

• An individual should get value from their
  contribution
• These contributions should provide value to other
  people as well
• The site or organisation that hosts the service
  should get value out of it and expose this value
  back to the individuals

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An intermediary space
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What have we got to play with?

• SMS infrastructure and distribution system
• Live tracklistings starting to emerge from the
  networks
• Large test audience of BBC staff
• National radio network (6 Music)

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Phonetags
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My songs
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My songs
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Exploring the network
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Exploring the network
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Exploring the network
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Exploring rock
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Exploring rock
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Exploring rock
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Phonetags

• Individuals bookmark and organise songs they hear
  on the radio
• Their bookmarking creates a browsable and
  information-rich site / service
• The BBC gets lots of useful metadata and
  information which it can re-expose in various
  ways...

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A virtuous circle...

• Building programming around it completely
• DJs observing to find out what to play and source
  songs
• A new non-limiting form of interactivity thats
  beyond simple aggregation - or at least
  encompasses all the previous forms and adds
  more...
• Improving site navigation

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Bubble-up metadata
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Broadcast vs. Network
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Group Listening
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Space for group activity
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Space for interactivity
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Group Listening

• Seeing what your friends are listening to
• Listening to programming alongside your friends
  in a shared space
• Interacting in ways that support - and dont
  undermine - the shared experience
• Organising and scheduling subsequent interactions

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Matt joins a chatroom with his friend Bob
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Bob
Matt
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Bob
Matt
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Bob
Matt
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Bob
Matt
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Bob
Matt
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Bob
Matt
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How could this work?
with Helen Pickford and Kate Rogers
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How could this work?
with Helen Pickford and Kate Rogers
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Larger questions...

• Why do we treat networked computers like passive,
  dumb receivers for broadcast content?
• And what happens when the network is in every
  appliance?
• Whats the social aspect of the networked Tivo?

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broadcast
phonetags hybrid

network
group listening hybrid
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For more information

• Matt Biddulph - matt.biddulph_at_bbc.co.uk
• Tom Coates - tom.coates_at_bbc.co.uk
• Paul Hammond - paul.hammond_at_bbc.co.uk
• Matt Webb - matt_at_interconnected.org
• 10 hour Takeover http//bbc.co.uk/radio1/djs/tenh
  our/
• Group Listening demo http//rnd.historicalfact.c
  om/gl/
• Phonetags demo http//rnd.historicalfact.com/phon
  etags/