´óÏó´«Ã½

Most of us here at Pods and Blogs are still struggling with Radio2.0 but the boffins on the Five Live interactive team are already tinkering away with the online tubes and valves from which the next generation of radio will emerge like a crystal set from a posh Christmas cracker.

Not content with skillfully turning radio into video this week, Brett Spencer, the head honcho of Five Live interactive sends, us this report from the future via the recent :

"The Radio 3.0 event in London, aimed to look at where radio goes next in an increasing competitive marketplace

Jenny Abramsky, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Director of Radio opened the event revealing the launch before the end of the year of DAB plugins for MP3 players, a way to keep the next generation in tune with the wireless.

There was a lot of talk during the day about the ongoing growth of digital radio although Phil Riley of Chrysalis Radio was keen to point out the commercial sector is paying for digital development out of their own profits. He also likened multi platform to high stakes gambling having to decide whether to back sky, freeview, mobile or online with development money

He went on to pretty much dismiss online listening pointing out the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s 15 million online listening hours per month is a tiny fraction of the 1 billion listening hours per week across the whole sector. Last FM and Pandora were dismissed as 'inconsequential' along with any other online radio station. Commercial radio is alive and well according to Riley with Galaxy in the Midlands reaching 54% of the teenage population, Didn't look so healthy though an hour later when the man in the expensive suit from Ofcom revealed that commercial radio revenues are down 4.5% year on year and 40% are actually losing money. He also predicted many small stations may not survive. Digital listening is now at 14% but predicted to rise to 90% in the next ten years. Although I did begin to think he was making stuff up to see if we were paying attention.

There were questions over whether satellite radio can ever be successful with Sirius and XM in the US swimming in red ink having spent a fortune, and this culminated in a presentation from World Space who are planning to, well take over the world. It was a bit like a Thunderbirds storyline, With their super dooper satellites they plan to launch more stations than you shake a stick at in Italy in 2008, then France, Spain etc. When they get to the UK they will look at 50 channels, 30-35 ad free music stations, 6 news channels and 10-15 speech networks. And then after lunch.........

According to World Space 'country by country approval is necessary, in the absence of harmonized regulatory frameworks to support pan-European complementary terrestrial radio networks'. Hey it sounds like a fun place to work."

More on the conference more

PS The image is from ...not that I'm biased or anything.