Overview

Radio landscapes from the North and the South greatly differ. Public channels have long dominated the North, though they’re now competing with Q-Music, Joe FM and Nostalgie Vlaanderen.

In the South, competition between public and private channels dates back a long time. The historical leaders are two private channels, Bel RTL and Contact, but the competition with VivaCité (RTBF) and Nostalgie (private) is strong.

Transistors and car radios remain, by far, the most popular devices, but radio listening via Internet is progressively developing, particularly for younger targets: 16% of 12-24 years old would already have listened to the radio via a computer, 20% via a GSM. Internet represents 8% of the audience volume of the population 12+ and 14% of the audience volume of 12-24 years old.

Advantages of radio:

• geographical selectivity (“local” radios, primarily in the south)
• socio-demographic selectivity (the public of each radio has a well-defined profile)
• fast coverage and repetition build-up
• interesting cost price/000 compared with other media
• low technical costs (compared to other media)

Disadvantages of radio:

• low attention level, medium which is often used as background noise