El blog de Josep Maria Martí

Provide with policies and strategies which favor the multichannel broadcasting has to be an unavoidable requirement for Catalan radio at a short and a long term, and most likely for the Spanish radio too. In Europe, multiplatform is becoming a significant reality, boosted by public and private operators; a research conducted in April last year in the area of the whole continent showed that most of broadcasters are developing the multiplatform distribution for the overall content and programming.

Right the opposite is the case of Catalonia, where the outcome shows that the net usage together with the FM, is the mainstay strategy of national broadcasting systems. This research which has been carried out by the European Broadcasting Union, puts forward that all broadcasters surveyed are using live streaming of their content, 87% available to its listeners through podcasting products an 68% have specific applications for smartphones and tablets.

The most outstanding facts in the survey we are referring to, are those which point to the usage of technological tools, which make easy access to the net with the aim of favoring the interactivity with the audience; all this can be achieved through the participation of what is call social media, debate forums in the own portal, online polls in programming, etc...

¿Is this data comparable with the situation Catalonia is currently living? The Radio Observatory is about to launch a survey in agreement to ACR (Catalan Commercial Radio Association) and funded by the Communication Secretary whose aim is to display the current situation of digital broadcasting in Catalonia and those perspectives provided in a short and in a long term as well. When it is published, we shall have our chances to compare the data, but I can hereby vouch for now is that the Catalan situation is very distinct and it will be necessary that the totality of our broadcasting system makes the effort in order not to lose the train with the rest of our European colleagues and thus remain as an analogical industry, and therefore, anachronistic, moving away from the youngest segments of the population of their audiences.