Citing a falloff in traditional advertising revenues and a shift in the media consumption patterns within the population, managing director of RJRGleaner Communications Group Anthony Smith revealed that the way forward for the media group is to be a “digital-first” organisation.

Addressing shareholders at the entity’s annual general meeting Wednesday at the Terra Nova All Suite Hotel in St Andrew, Smith noted, “So, the market is telling us that we need to transform. Our audience, the behaviour of our audience, is also telling us that we need to transform.”

He pointed out that while individuals are consuming more information, the sources for information has increased to include social media and gaming platforms. Additionally, whereas mobile screens were considered the third screen in years gone by, mobile devices now outnumber television and computer screens, becoming the primary means of communicating and consuming information.

“There is a demographic that is strictly in the digital space, so that is telling us also that we need to transform” Smith reiterated.

Objectives and imperatives

Sharing the strategic objectives for the group, the managing director said that in addition to realising synergies and cost-efficiencies from closer collaboration and cooperation among all media platforms, the second focus is on growing digital business.

Apart from sharing the media group’s strategic objectives, Smith also detailed six “imperatives”, some of which involve integrating digital technology.

“The fourth is the roll-out of next-generation or digital TV, the fifth is implement a new operating system, and the sixth is to grow our digital business,” he stated.

Expounding on the imperative, Smith revealed that the roll-out of next-generation television (NextGenTV) which is now underway, is now reaching 66 per cent of the Jamaican population.

RJRGleaner Communications Group began the switchover and rollout of NextGenTV transmitter, otherwise known as ATSC 3.0, through Television Jamaica in 2022. The move made Jamaica the third country after South Korea and the United States of America to adopt and transmit using the ATSC 3.0 digital terrestrial television service.

The company has been working with Dielectric to commission eight transmission points across the island as part of phase one of the project. They are Kingston, Coopers Hill, Oracabessa, Flower Hill, Shot Over, Huntley, Winchester and Mount Airy.

In the second phase, RJRGleaner will expand the network by 12 additional sites over a 12 month period, according to a TV News Check article.

The roll-out of NextGenTV, according to Smith, “will give us the opportunity to have additional TV channels, and also to have new revenue streams”.

While exercising caution with how much he disclosed, the managing director said, “But we expect that during this financial year, we will start earning revenue on the digital TV, and especially the data casting side of the DSO.

A data-driven operation

On the operation side, Smith shared that the communications group is engaging with business consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers in a review of the corporate structure, processes, management of human resources, and use of technology to effect digital transformation.

“We also have the aim of being very much data-driven in our decision-making, and we’re putting in the infrastructure for that as well. Of course, not to forget agile because in this day and age, and in the market that we operate in …we must be able to act with pace. We must be agile,” he explained.  

Touching on growing RJRGleaner’s digital business, Smith highlighted the group’s new hires in Head of Digital Business Beverley Thompson and Digital Product Manager Darren Mitchell.

“And of course, we have our data analytics and digital services team that has been in place since 2022. And I’m forgetting a fourth point, which is to leverage the digital assets that we have to diversify revenue streams,” he added.

Smith said the RJRGleaner board expects that revenues from digital will grow by 30 per per cent annually over three years and will exceed revenues from traditional sources. However, he assured shareholders there’s no need to fear that digital revenue will “cannibalise” traditional revenue.

Rather, he urged all stakeholders to “embrace” the change as “growing your digital revenue actually grows your overall revenue”.

“We want to build and continue to build a modern, agile organisation with strong brands focused on fulfilling customer needs. We will be a digital-first culture. We’re building a digital-first culture,” Smith emphasized.