Arcom warns of the risk of radio being marginalised as a medium

Arcom is warning that radio could be pushed to the fringes as a medium.

For millions of drivers, car radios are part of everyday life - yet they are no longer guaranteed to be fitted. Arcom is sounding the alarm about several manufacturers’ decisions to remove this equipment from new vehicles, with Tesla cited in particular via the Model 3 and Model Y.

Elon Musk’s company is not alone in taking this direction. Mac4ever notes, for example, that Dacia has chosen to omit it from the Spring in the “Essential” version, while Citroën is doing the same on certain trims of the C3. In its place, more and more motorists are relying on their smartphone, connected through CarPlay or Android Auto.

Romain Laleix, a member of Arcom’s board responsible for radio matters, published an opinion piece at the start of the year in Les Échos to raise the alarm. If the trend continues, he says the threat to radio as a medium is clear: “The absence of a car radio in cars would amount to an immediate marginalisation of the medium and its disappearance in the short term.”

Protecting radio as a “common good”

He argues this is all the more worrying because, although DAB+ - which he likens to a sort of Freeview for radio - still enables people to listen to stations in cars that have it (as required by European law), some companies could try to sidestep the rule and remove radio from our vehicles altogether.

Such a path would be disastrous for the sector, given that 30% of total radio listening happens in the car. Laleix speaks on behalf of the “1,200 radios present across the whole national territory, in mainland France and the overseas territories” that he says Arcom regulates. He adds that “radio is, by nature, the universal medium, the voice of those who would not be heard without it” and that it is “the first free medium in the world and, in some countries, the only one”.

To prevent the worst, Arcom’s board members want to act at European Union level: “The drafting of the European regulation on digital networks must be an opportunity to require car manufacturers not only to integrate a receiver in vehicles, but to genuinely guarantee access to radio, by means of a button or an application that is clearly identifiable on dashboards.”

In his view, this should not be treated as a remote, bureaucratic matter - because the impact is tangible:

Behind these legislative battles that may seem distant, what is at stake is nothing less than the future of our radios, of those who keep them alive on air and behind the scenes. Also at stake is the future of a unique cultural model, which guarantees each of our fellow citizens access to reliable information, a diverse cultural offering and local services. More than ever, let us defend free, anonymous and universal access to radio, so that the medium of everyone remains a common good!

The point has been made - and the warning has been clearly issued.