Broadcast Media Africa (BMA) has officially launched a new industry-wide survey to assess the current realities, challenges, and future direction of radio and sound broadcasting across the African continent.
Titled “Radio And Sound Broadcasting In Africa – State Of Play,” the survey seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of how Africa’s broadcasting industry is evolving amid rapid technological advancement, shifting audience behaviour, and changing business environments.
The initiative comes at a critical time for broadcasters, as the sector continues to undergo transformation driven by artificial intelligence, digital migration, streaming platforms, mobile media consumption, podcast growth, cloud-based broadcasting technologies, and new content distribution models.
The research aims to establish a strategic industry benchmark to help broadcasters, regulators, policymakers, investors, technology providers, advertisers, and media development organisations better understand the evolving sound broadcasting landscape across Africa.
The survey will examine how broadcasters are adapting to digital transformation and adopting emerging technologies, including AI-assisted content production, streaming services, IP-based workflows, remote production technologies, mobile radio solutions, and podcasting platforms. The research will also explore the financial sustainability of broadcasters, including advertising trends, sponsored content models, partnerships, and other revenue-generation approaches shaping the industry.
In addition, the study will assess changing audience consumption habits across both urban and rural markets, with a focus on mobile listening trends, youth engagement, local content demand, and the growing influence of digital audio services and streaming platforms.
BMA noted that the survey findings are expected to yield valuable industry insights into technology adoption, business sustainability, audience shifts, investment opportunities, policy development, and the skills required to support the sector’s long-term growth.
The final report is also expected to provide practical recommendations that can assist regulators, broadcasters, and industry stakeholders in strengthening innovation, infrastructure development, collaboration, and capacity building across Africa’s radio and sound broadcasting ecosystem.
The survey will engage a broad range of stakeholders from across the broadcasting value chain, including broadcasters, media executives, engineers, regulators, content creators, academic institutions, advertisers, media buyers, and technology companies.
