Case study: a year on, the listen button has become an essential tool at Omroep Flevoland

Omroep Flevoland, a leading regional media company in the Netherlands, has put innovation front and centre for years. One carefully weighed part of its commitment to accessibility and user experience is the ReadSpeaker listen button, now running on its website and its app.

Early in 2022 the broadcaster was looking for ways to build more accessibility into its news content. It wanted a solution that would also let people with limited reading skills or a visual impairment take in news and information more easily.

For this case study ReadSpeaker took on the role of journalist, so what follows comes from an interview with the broadcaster about the results of adding the listen button to its app and website.

Rolling out the ReadSpeaker listen button

Omroep Flevoland had noticed the ReadSpeaker listen button at work elsewhere, on the site of the newspaper De Telegraaf among others, and decided to adopt it. How easily it fitted into the platforms the broadcaster already ran counted for a lot in that decision.

The rollout was aimed squarely at the end user, with a strong focus on making content more inclusive and more accessible. The broadcaster has been positively surprised by how its audience responded, and by the fact that they keep using it.

What the data shows

According to Jeroen van der Plank, webmaster at Omroep Flevoland, data plays an important part in judging the impact and the success of a feature like the listen button. He initially feared that use would tail off over time. The data says otherwise: usage stayed steady, at 300 to 600 interactions a day. That points to a feature seen as a lasting addition rather than a passing novelty.

Accessibility and user experience

The accessibility of its news content is a recurring concern for Omroep Flevoland. The listen button helps considerably by making that content easier to reach for people with low literacy or difficulty reading. It is equally handy for anyone who would rather listen, because they are on the move for instance.

On top of that, the steady improvement in the quality of the digital voices ReadSpeaker builds with AI driven text to speech technology has made the experience better and better, says Van der Plank. News articles are read out more accurately, tricky names and words are pronounced properly, and user satisfaction rises with them.

What comes next

Omroep Flevoland still sees a lot of potential in text to speech voices and other AI solutions across its platforms. Beyond integrating and standardising the listen button further within the layout of the website and the app, the media company plans to focus more on translating content, given how diverse its audience has become. News articles are already offered in ten different languages, and Omroep Flevoland is aiming wider still, which fits its mission as a regional broadcaster.

The station is also looking at having live news bulletins read out by text to speech voices, at night for example, when no newsreader is on duty. Even so, the broadcaster expects that an AI presenter, however good, will not match a real human presenter any time soon.

Conclusion

Omroep Flevoland has rolled out the ReadSpeaker listen button successfully, and it has improved both accessibility and user experience. Staying close to its audience, backed by what the data tells it, lets the broadcaster deliver solutions that answer what its users actually need. That is what puts it in a position to keep bringing regional news to the widest possible public.

We hope more organisations will follow us in this, so that we can create an internet that is as accessible as possible.

Jeroen van der Plank, Webmaster, Omroep Flevoland

In our view that positions Omroep Flevoland as a leading player in today's media landscape, with a commendable view of accessibility in the future of media and news.

Has this case study made you curious? Open the Omroep Flevoland app or website and listen to their articles with the listen button and the voices of ReadSpeaker.