At last year’s WorldDAB Automotive summit, Bauer Media Group SVP Tobias Nielsen spotlighted the European Broadcast Union’s “Connected Car Playbook,” which explained how public radio broadcasters should work together to ensure radio’s place in car and truck dashboards.
At this year’s summit, which was presented at Madrid’s Palacio Neptuno hotel on June 19, Nielsen returned to talk about the updated version of the EBU playbook.
Titled “Radio Ready for Connected Car,” the latest version goes beyond public service broadcasters to bring commercial radio stations and networks into the fold.
Tomas Granryd, the EBU connected car playbook coordinator who joined him to speak at the event, said: “We are delighted to share that for the first time ever, we [have] a joint vision across all public service broadcasters and all commercial radio stations in Europe for how to meet the audience in the connected cars.”
The “Radio Ready” playbook is built on three premises. First, radio should continue to be prominent in vehicles and be convenient to use. Second, apps that support in-car audio should be easy to find, and third, voice assistants that control in-car radios should be reliable and consistent.
“We know that the audience wants radio to be prominent and super easy to find,” Nielsen said. “That means always accessible, always present on the screen and a physical radio button is the gold standard.
“We also think that the audience wants it to be hybrid [both over-the-air and web-connected], because they want this seamless experience,” said Nielsen. “And, of course, [radio should] always be free, no paywalls, no subscription fees; nothing like that.”
Nielsen said in-car audiences also want their apps to be more discoverable, in addition to having an easier way to access them. Many users will use voice commands to navigate to what they need; however, Nielsen said the tech isn’t always reliable.
“You know that people try to use voice [commands] a maximum of three times. If it doesn’t work after that, they will never try it again. So you have very few opportunities to engage people in using voice. It should be the right response the first time when you ask [to navigate to] a live station.”
Australia’s commercial radio broadcasters are also supporting the Radio Ready playbook through their industry association Commercial Radio & Audio. The EBU and WorldDAB are hoping that other broadcasters across the world will sign on as well.
[Related: “WorldDAB: Radio Is Still ‘Made for the Drive’“]
