The first day of the Media 2020 Conference

The first day of the Media 2020 Conference organized in Bucharest by the ABU- the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union in partnership with Radio Romania was devoted to discussions about joint concerns regarding the audiovisual in Europe, Asia, America and Australia.

The topics were related to the pressure of the new technologies, the direct relation between the broadcasting of good music and the increase in audience, the rise in the interest for radio or TV drama.

Have you wondered what type of audiovisual you will have tomorrow?

On the one hand, the technological revolution in this field is so fast that new devices are emerging every day, equipment carrying radio and television signal, by means of which you can listen to our radio station on your mobile phone and on the Internet, on your tablet or laptop.

On the other hand, there have emerged new companies, the heavies being the well known Google, Facebook, Twitter, besides many others, which are considered to pose a threat to radio and television, as they can ‘take’ part of the radio and TV audiences, due to their big budgets and aggressiveness.

This was one of the main topics discussed today at the Media 2020 Conference.

What is the solution? Shall we give priority to the technological breakthroughs or to the program content?

Toshiyuki Sato from NHK Japan, believes that adopting the new technological breakthroughs is a must.

But the radio, especially the public radio, also has other strengths. For instance it can save lives during natural disasters, as was the case in 2011 in Japan when a powerful earthquake took place followed by a tsunami.

According to Toshiyuki Sato it seems that the traditional broadcasting industry is getting eroded, but still the industry is maintaining its leadership position, because it is assimilating the new technologies.

He says they have introduced the HD in television, so, in one way or another they have survived. When you broadcast news, you produce programs, you need professionalism, Toshiyuki Sato went on to say, so that from a wide range of offers on the market the people will choose more substantial contents.

Steve Robins, the vice-president of the WFMT network from the USA believes that the current situation offers a lot of opportunities, that they have a huge chance, they have the streaming and the podcast.

A podcast, a documentary had 40 million downloads in 3 months, he said. It is a huge number, just like in the case of the Superbowl. He says they are part of the media, his program explores music, their archive has 200 weeks of programs, thousands of hours of recordings. They have 2 thousand subscribers. He believes they will come out of this situation more powerful.

Graham Ellis, deputy director of BBC Radio, recalled one of the strengths and responsibilities of a public radio station.

He believes that for the public mass media it is important to be aware of what differentiates them from the purely commercial mass media. At a closer look, it is about the way in which the public media are directly responsible towards the audience. It is about TV and radio audiences as citizens not just as customers, and the media have to recall that they have the duty to reflect the entire society from their counties, not only to offer good, independent news and political information, Graham Ellis went on to say, adding that they have to present society through art, culture and music.

The president – director general of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation, Ovidiu Miculescu, said at the end of the first day of the conference that technology is way ahead of content and that media companies have to adapt to this technological boom, if they want to avoid having problems.

Also, across the world, the media industry understood that they had to join hands in order to defend themselves against the global giants such as Facebook, Netflix, Youtube or Google, Ovidiu Miculescu added, and to that end they need to find solutions and be professional. Ovidiu Miculescu also concluded that despite all these technological breakthroughs, the spirit of television and radio is in good hands, in the sense that most of the speakers- and they are people with a lot of experience in the field, people who run organizations, who have a long career in the media- think that irrespective of how powerful the technology boom is, the spirit of radio and television is in good hands.

The first day of the Media 2020 conference came to an end.

And since we were talking about new communication platforms, we should add that the event organized by the ABU and Radio Romania has gathered hundreds of reactions on social networks, especially on Twitter, on the Media 2020 hashtag, where more than 100 posts were recorded.

Part of the conference was transmitted live on Twitter by means of the Periscope platform.

The posts were made mostly by the participants and organizers, and also by representatives of the Romanian Foreign Ministry and by the main news and jobs site in the radio industry from Australia.

On Facebook there were posts including links to articles about the conference as well as tens of photos, that have generated lots of comments and likes. The conference continues on Wednesday.