Friday, March 25, 2011

The radio in Bulgaria in the last 10 years

On 22 March the Bulgarian National Radio held a round table on the topic “The Radio medium 2001-2010: audience, policies, advertisement, digitization”. The event is part of a research project exploring the electronic media in the times of transition in Bulgaria. According to Margarita Pescheva, head of the project, the radio medium in Bulgaria is expanding at a high pace. If in 2006 there were 195 radio stations, in 2007 their number got more than 240. Radio stations, however, are not evenly spread across the country. They are merely 25 in Northwestern Bulgaria, which is the least developed region in the country. One of the Southern regions has 65, while another -45. What poses a problem for the radio medium is that radio stations prefer to broadcast mostly in the big cities. Thus, Sofia has 27 radio stations, Plovdiv has 17 and Varna-16. Local stations are much less developed. Music and information programmes are twice as many as the multi-topic ones. However, Bulgaria’s two nation-wide multi-topic networks Horizont and Daric Radio have been extremely influential in the second decade of the post-totalitarian transition period. The research relies on data from TVPlan/TNS and Market Links, the two most influential polling agencies in the field of media research in Bulgaria.

“The surveys of the two agencies show explicitly that the radio is an extremely vibrant medium”, Margarita Pescheva points out. “The idea that the radio is doomed to disappear after the emergence of the Internet and digital technologies is far from the truth. The radio is like life itself! It is extremely valued by listeners because of two things: its nice music and news in brief. In fact, over the last decade the radio has gained more and more listeners. People look for it mostly on weekdays and not so much in the weekend. Most listeners live in the cities. Men listen to the radio a bit more than women, mostly while driving and working. The most active listeners are people aged 36-54. Furthermore, it seems we are not yet eager to dump our radio receivers at home. The wireless is a preferred means for radio listening, although since 2006 radio listening on the Internet has soared sharply, by more than 20%”, Margarita Pescheva informs.

In the last decade, the undisputable leader on the air in Bulgaria has been Radio Horizont of the Bulgarian National Radio. So for example, in 2007-2010 the average monthly number of listeners of Horizont accounted for 34% or 2.400.000 people. Listeners define the features on Horizont as quite balanced and rich. On the other hand, some of BNR’s regional stations, such as Radio Blagoevgrad and Radio Varna are leaders in their regions, competing with BNR’s national programmes. According to Valeri Todorov, Director-General of the Bulgarian National Radio, Horizont is not only increasing its listeners, but also keeping up a leading position among other radio networks.

“I definitely consider this a success in a very competitive media and I can say with certainty that in many respects we compete with both radio stations and popular TV channels”, Mr Todorov says. “I hope that this competition between us and them will give a new direction and new dynamics to the media. Our goal, however, is much more different from that of commercial stations. We shape, create and promote cultural values in all respects”, Mr Todorov comments.

As a public media the Bulgarian National Radio has the mission to provide a direct and free access to the radio. Therefore, the national media has wide coverage in border and remote regions in Bulgaria. The foreign language broadcasts and the unique website of Radio Bulgaria, which broadcasts and publishes news and features in 11 languages, extends far beyond Bulgaria’s borders only to reach foreign listeners and Bulgarians living abroad. As far as digitization is concerned, within a month the Radio would be able to provide digital broadcasting from its studios. “As early as 2008 the BNR started digital broadcasting. So far, we have been the only country in the large-scale European project of Euranet which broadcasts digitally in 4 languages”, Valeri Todorov concludes.

Author: Veneta Pavlova, English version: Vyara Popova

(Source : Radio Bulgeria/Media Network Weblog) 

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