The Radio Market in Bulgaria: Modern and Dynamic
date: 09.11.2000
In 1999, the radio broadcasts in the country demonstrated all the signs of a relatively well developed media market: there is a high number of broadcasting stations, a variety of programme models and strategies, a diversity of audience preferences, high audience mobility and audience restructuring dynamism. The overall satisfaction of the audience with the offered product is very high. For instance, 19% of the large cities residents find the quality of Bulgarian television programmes unsatisfactory, whereas the unsatisfied radio broadcast recipients are only 8%.
A few radio stations have emerged, whose coverage, programmes and audience shares can define them as national. Most of all this applies to the programmes of the Bulgarian National Radio Horizont and Hristo Botev. Horizont, which has the highest audience share (42%), is most preferred in the villages and small towns where the number of private radio stations is relatively lower. The programme audience is mainly middle-aged and older. Hristo Botev is not making it so well: in June the radio had a three-percent audience share ranging among the oldest age group of listeners. The two most popular radio stations with national coverage are Darik Radio and Veselina. Their shares are 13 and 8 per cent respectively. Their audiences are mainly among the middle-age and lower-age groups and they both enjoy a greater popularity in the towns rather than in villages.
The big boom among the radio stations was made by the music programmes. Of these FM+ (6%), Rhythmo (5%), Express (4%), Radio+, Atlantic, and Channel Kom have the strongest presence at a national level. In fact, in each town, local radio stations have monopolised youth audiences.
The strong competition among the music-oriented radio stations invoked a change in the programme models. It can be said that the concept of the "music-and-information radio", which was so popular in the 90's, is now considered outdated. The radio stations in Sofia and throughout the country are actively exploring their own specific formats which could make them sell better to the fastidious audiences. For instance, on a national scale, the success of this strategy is illustrated by the Plovdiv radio Rhythmo. Its clear-cut folk format is highly preferred by the audiences in the regions with high interest in folk and Latino music (such as Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, etc.). In Sofia, the strongest example for a transfer to a new format is the Vitosha radio. This station offers only the latest hits thus falling into the category of the so called CHR format (Contemporary Hit Radio). The result was a higher recipient share and a deep restructuring of the audience.
The transfer to a new format involves a number of risks. It invariably means the loss of the listeners who are currently pleased with the programme scheme. Formatting also presupposes high expenses for the promotion and advertising of the new media product. Regardless of the risks and the expenses, the radio stations in the country are already aware of the rules imposed by the modern, fragmentary and full market: the average listener is dead, long live the individually oriented one.
