Background
NRJ Belgium has launched a new video platform to promote its brand and attract new listeners – the web TV channel NRJ Hits. NRJ Hits was launched during the 19th edition of NRJ in the Park, a free concert that attracts 50,000 fans each year. On top of streaming the whole concert, the web TV also showed exclusive backstage footage, interviews and stars who shared their comments and impressions. The video stream is available on the NRJ website as well as within the NRJ mobile app, and it predominantly shows videos of the artists promoted by the station as well as new Belgian talent. NRJ plans to make the most of its new web TV channel for other similar events, such as the NRJ Music Tour and the NRJ Sessions.
NRJ recognised the importance of online video sites such as YouTube to its core listeners in their consumption of music content. NRJ Hits responds to this evolution in young music consumers’ behaviour whilst providing a high-quality, curated alternative within the NRJ brand environment, thereby keeping fans in the NRJ family.
Although it has yet to exploit this, NRJ Hits also offers a new source of potential advertising inventory and therefore additional possibilities for monetisation.
A promotional platform offering many possibilities
According to NRJ Belgium, the primary goal of the online TV channel NRJ Hits is to promote the broadcaster’s brand. The audience figures show that NRJ has been steadily growing in the southern part of the country, from 4.5% share in 2010 to 7.8% in 2013 (source: CIM). Whilst for the time being it is the radio station that promotes the TV stream, NRJ hopes that by gaining access to a terrestrial channel, it will in time be the other way round, with NRJ Hits driving listeners to its radio station.
In addition to music videos, NRJ Hits is a flexible platform to enrich its concert and other music activities. Naturally, audience and artist engagement on social media is key to bringing another dimension to the multiplatform experience. By keeping the web TV within the existing NRJ mobile app, the brand’s fans have easy access to all the content offered without the need for additional downloads.
Plans for the future
Today’s technology, including devices such as Airplay with Apple TV, Miracast and Google Chromecast, allow streaming video to be easily displayed on television screens; however, to reach a wider audience, NRJ plans to broadcast over terrestrial in the near future. This in turn will bring a greater opportunity to attract listeners to NRJ on the radio.
Whilst the web TV platform is not currently being used to generate advertising revenues, a special offer for 2015 will combine radio and streamed TV.
Why this matters to egta members
Younger media consumers are increasingly platform agnostic, and they look for great content across a variety of platforms. By taking its music and editorial content into online video, NRJ is providing additional consumer touchpoints which, as the platforms gain greater audiences, can be monetised using the full array of digital advertising products that are so beloved by today’s media buyers.
NRJ has demonstrated that by carefuly considering content, delivery and brand environment, radio can avoid the dangers of turning good radio into bad television! |