Pop in and Chill with SBS Radio’s digital services

SBS Radio’s new digital channels are on air in five capital cities, and now in Canberra as part of the digital radio trial there. This week radioinfo speaks to SBS Director of Audio and Language Services Dirk Anthony about the multilingual broadcaster’s plans for digital radio.

 

SBS Radio broadcasts in 68 languages and until recently had to try and squeeze them all into one national channel or two channels in Sydey Melbourne and Canberra. This limited the flexibility of program placement in the daily schedule and the amount of airtime which each language could be allocated.

With the coming of digital radio SBS has the opportunity to solve some of these constraints because Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth can now receive the same two services that the other cities received, via digital radio.

Through new time shifted channels, and the introduction of innovative formats to target new listeners, digital radio is also providing a platform for further expansion at SBS Radio.

 

Dirk Anthony, an Australian, born of migrant parents, has been in the job of leading the Radio Division for about a year. He previously worked in programming and management for UK commercial radio stations. Before returning to Australia, he was responsible for programming and content delivery across the UK’s largest commercial radio group, GWR, which became GCap Media PLC. When GWR merged with Capital Radio, he was tasked with integrating the stations’ content teams. Dirk also led the team that designed and developed GCAP’s online platform and its new media revenue streams.

He views digital radio as an important plank in the wider stretegies which SBS must adopt to remain relevant to its audience.

 

radioinfo: SBS Radio is committed to being part of the digital radio trial in Canberra, extending the reach of your new channels to the national capital. Why was it important to you to be there? 

Dirk Anthony: From our point of view our mantra has been to make sure more Australians know SBS exists and see it as valuable, so that is why it is important to us. We want to show to people in Canbera that SBS has a unique product and has some new things to trial.

Canberra is a strategic market for us. We are already there on the FM and AM bands, but we wanted to demonstrate to everyone that we are also committed to this digital radio broadcast platform. It is a small investment but one that is valuable in showing our commitment and test marketing our new formats to people in Canberra.

 

radioinfo: How many new digital radio services have you launched? 

Dirk Anthony: Digital radio now allows us to broadcast our two main channels in all cities where digital is on air, plus we have added new time shifted channels that replay the main services two hours later, giving people another timeslot to listen.

So there are now 4 language channels, plus and our two new channels SBS Chill and Pop Asia.

We have been streaming Chill and Pop Asia for the past few months. SBS Chill has given us most feedback on digital radio and we have had lots of response online to the Pop Asia service, perhaps reflecting its younger target demographic is listening more on line at this stage.

SBS Chill is an adult service targeted at 30 year olds and above. But it has more than just an age target, people who listen to Chill have a wider interest in all types of music, because the channel draws music from all around world.

Pop Asia is a pop music station in Chinese languages for under 25 year old pop fans who live here and enjoy that kind of music.

 

radioinfo: As earlier generations of migrants grow older and their children, born in Australia, speak English well, how will SBS Radio adapt to changing  multilingual needs? Are these new digital radio channels part of this strategy?

Dirk Anthony: There’s two parts to this. The first part is about language.

Our AM and FM channels will by their nature target more older audiences, and we provide an Aussie perspective on news and information that they can’t get from overseas news feeds, so we will continue to be important to them. And don’t forget, new migrants are coming through all the time and these are also targeted by our language channels, so there is a continuing need for these sertvices.

The second part in answering this question is relevant for SBS as a whole. We do provide services to second generation audiences, but we are aware that they also speak English well and listen to many mainstream services. We are experimenting with reaching them with our new digital radio services, this is part of our strategy for remaining relevant to them.

 

radioinfo: What are the listening patterns for SBS Radio’s main services?

Dirk Anthony: Because the product is an information network in so many languages, we have 68 executive producers, producing content for 68 target audiences.

The major population areas for listening are Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Wollongong. We try not to be Melbourne or Sydney centric, because we are trying to create content for all of Australia, but the fact is that a large number of our listeners are in these main cities.

 

radioinfo: Are these listening numbers enough to generate good revenue for SBS Radio?

Dirk Anthony: Advertising revenue is a small part of our funding, especially in radio. We will grow it as and where it fits. Commercial radio would never see us as a threat because what we do is very niche and small, but there are particular clients who are interested in reaching out audiences and they like to advertise with us.

It is hard to measure those audiences by the mainstream measurement tools, but we have internal measurements which we use to tell our advertisers who is listening. We reach the large language groups well. We connect with a million people in language each week, but beyond that it is hard to give details. Our advertisers usually know it works for them by the response they get.

 

radioinfo: Has the role of SBS Radio changed since it began over 30 years ago?

Dirk Anthony: Interestingly we have just reviewed that. We have concluded that we play the same role as when we launched, but now there are twice as many people in Australia who speak another language, so the importance of what we do has increased.

Over the past 35 years of operation we have professionalized the service more than it was when it began. All those years ago it was about issues such as telling people about Medicare and accessing basic services. Now our content is much wider and more important as we seek to inform about a wider range of topics.

 

radioinfo: You have been Director of Radio there for a while now, have you developed other short and long term goals for the networks?

We are now the Audio and Language Division and language is playing a larger role. We will make a larger contribution within SBS with that element of what we do. My goal is to use language to build audiences. Our new senior manager Mandy Wicks has recently joined the team and will help deliver some of the goals we have set for ourselves.

We have a big goal to invest more in Chinese languages. Wait to hear soon about some innovative cross platform things we are developing in Chinese languages.

Multiplatform content is another priority for us. We want to continue to remain relevant and give a perspective for all Australians in languages on many platforms. Another thing we often ask ourselves is, would we rate in the countries of origin? Is the quality of our programming as good as the best available in those countries? These questions will keep us on our toes as we move into the future.

 

 

PopAsia

From urban inspired Japanese J-Pop and the mega star ballads of Cantonese and Mandarin C-Pop, to the R&B rhythms of Korean K-Pop currently taking Asia by storm – PopAsia is SBS’s musical journey into the heart of Asia’s pop music scene.

At SBS Pop Asia the hits flow freely 24/7 with the best of pop music in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Korean on Digital radio and online at http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/popasia/about/page/i/1/show/popasia

 

 

Chill

SBS Chill provides a break from the stress of work, the rush that is daily life and all the complexities of your world.

Listen to SBS Chill to enjoy a relaxing mix of music from around the world. If your Inbox is full, and your phone is begging you to answer, switch on SBS Chill for a break then work your way through what you need to do.

Enjoy the Chilled sounds from artists such as the Art of Noise, Bent, Boards of Canada, the Bombay Dub Orchestra, Frou Frou, Groove Armada, Nightmares on Wax, Moby, Tom Middleton and many more. You can listen now for a taste of SBS Chill on your Digital Radio and online at http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/chill/about/page/i/1/show/chill