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Category: Radio

Category: Radio

Infinite Dial 2016 – Study On Digital, Mobile Growth

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By David Alpern The annual Infinite Dial study was recently released. It examined the expanding proliferation of smartphones and digital Infinite Dialaudio services, such as listening to online radio and podcasts. The research found that half of the audience now listens to some sort of online radio each week, up from 44% last year. Here are some highlights of how content delivery is evolving:

  • 57% of Americans use online radio each month
  • Podcast listening is growing on a monthly basis (17% to 21%) and weekly (10% last year to 13% this year). Weekly podcast listeners listen to an average of five podcasts per week
  • In-home ownership of a radio receiver has dropped. 79% have a radio at home. Eight years ago it was 96% = nearly every home in America. Among 18-34-year-olds, radio ownership in the home is down from 94% to 68%
  • Pandora remains the best-known online audio brand with 82% awareness. Apple Music which invested heavily to relaunch a year ago is second (67%). iHeartRadio, the largest broadcaster in the country is close to Apple (65%). Spotify has strong brand presence (52%)
  • Music streaming among the 12-24 demo finds that 43% listened to Pandora within the past month and 30% listened to Spotify
  • Spotify gained as the “Audio Brand Used Most Often,” up from 10% to 14%. Pandora leads everyone with 48%
  • Broadcast radio is tied for the lead among all audio sources for keeping up-to-date with new music – ahead of YouTube. However, among 12-24s, broadcast radio falls to third (58%), behind YouTube (86%) and friends/family (74%)
  • Smartphone ownership continues to grow, reaching 76%, up five percentage points since last year. Among 12-24-year-olds, smartphone ownership rose to 93%. Even seniors are getting “smart” with more than half now using a smartphone – up 45 to 51%
  • On demand video-subscriptions are at 51% of the country. The largest is Netflix. 43% of all survey respondents subscribe to Netflix
  • Facebook remains the most-used social media platform (64%). Among 12-24s Snapchat (72%) and Instagram (66%) lead the social media pack
Media consumption is dramatically changing. Mobile is increasingly being utilized as a “first screen” after several years of having established itself as the “second screen” supplement to traditional HDTV set viewing. Podcasts and on-demand video services are allowing for binge watching and listening, and their anticipated future growth will continue to impact and change the media landscape. Expect to see online radio continue to increase its audience reach and join smartphones and social media as broad mainstream activities.]]>

Radio Continues to Show Strong ROI

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By , Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Radio delivered a stunning 17-to-1 return on investment for four department store chains during the third quarter of 2014, according to new research from Nielsen. The new hot-off-the-presses study, previewed Wednesday at the NAB-RAB Radio Show in Atlanta, also showed the radio campaigns drove a 10% increase in overall store sales for the four retail brands. The study, which compared consumer spending at the department stores in Q3 of 2014 to the same period in 2013, showed exposure to the radio campaigns drove a 10% lift in overall store sales with radio bringing in more shoppers who also spent more often each time they shopped. The study credits the radio campaigns with a 3% increase in the total number of buyers and a 6% increase in dollars spent per buyer. Sizing up the total impact of the campaigns, Carol Edwards, senior VP, Nielsen Media Analytics, said they delivered incremental spending of $356 million from customers exposed to the messaging. Factoring in the $20 million the brands spent on the radio buy results in the 17-to-1 ROI metric, meaning that $17 in incremental store sales was generated for every dollar spent on radio. The latest in a series of radio ROI studies from Nielsen, the research cross-referenced time-stamped PPM listening data with Media Monitors spot tracking data to determine which listeners were exposed to the ads. Nielsen tapped its credit and debit card expenditure data to track the participants’ department store purchases and calculated the brands’ radio ad spend with SQAD data

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Cultivated Streaming vs. Radio

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tuneinBy David Alpern Rick Dees, The Real Don Steele, Don Imus, Cousin Brucie, Kevin & Bean, Scott Shannon….these are all larger than life personalities that busted through the radio over the years and became huge radio sensations and thus ratings monsters. Comparing that to the non-interrupted music flow that comes from Amazon Music, Rhapsody, Spotify, Songza, and others is not truly a fair comparison. One is full of life and the other is full of efficiency. Some services like Slacker try to inject pre-recorded announcers, which is a nice effort, but does not even begin to approach the presence that a “jock” brings to a station. That is why the re-emergence of cultivated content is a refreshing trend. As Wired Magazine reported last month in “Internet Radio Is Fixing to Make a Comeback”, several Internet streaming providers including Apple Music (with its impressive Beats1 radio station guided by Zane Lowe) and the new premium service from TuneIn are working to inject a personal touch into online music services. “TuneIn anchors a human at the other end of the broadcast,” says CEO John Donham. Nobody Killed the Radio Star Despite the recent proliferation of online streaming alternatives, rumors of radio’s decline have been greatly exaggerated. Due to its cultivated and personality driven heritage, it’s managed to hold its own. The reach of radio and the number of people listening to the radio have remained mostly constant over a long period of time. That is why stations like K-Earth 101 and KOST 103.5 tend to be heard all over town. While all those stores and food stalls and passing cars could choose to stream a personality free online alternative, the DJ driven presentation along with the program director cultivated playlist still conspire to produce a compelling listener experience and Internet Radio is certainly noticing and adjusting. South Korea . Game on!]]>

Streaming Music + Personality = The New Radio

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By David Alpern The Wall Street Journal published a front page profile of the new radio service Apple is expected to announce at its developers’ conference next week: http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-to-announce-new-music-services-1433183201 The concept of DJ cultivated radio on the new Apple music service could be a real difference maker. The beauty of radio is well establiStreamingshed with personality and localization, two tenants that have not been as possible with the jukebox oriented nature of most of the current online streaming services. With the right amount of artistic cultivation (and Apple’s decision that we referenced earlier on this blog to recruit several high profile BBC Radio 1 talent is a good source of that) Tim Cook and Apple may have a very strong radio product about to be shared with the world. Moreover, with Spotify having demonstrated the ability to recruit a critical mass of paying subscribers (25% of its total US audience), Apple’s new radio streaming service should be able to leverage the buzz that comes with anything Apple does. That buzz may help propel the new Apple Radio into a prominent position in the online streaming marketplace, which is rapidly becoming the new radio home for a hungry music, culture, and personality craving audience.]]>

Podcast Chatter – RAIN Summit at NAB Las Vegas

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  • In-Car listening Survey Results: For those driving cars model years 2009 or older – 67% responded that they listen to AM/FM radio the most. The numbers are lower for people who drive cars that are 2010 and newer – only 47% said they listen primarily to AM/FM since newer cars typically have an adapter to plug in wireless devices. (Larry Rosin, Edison Research)
    • Norm Pattiz of Podcast One labeled the current era ‘the golden age of podcasting’ and likens the industry to the early days of traditional radio when programmers were still trying to figure out what kind of content would draw listeners
    • Pattiz likened podcasting to using a DVR to record TV shows. Once you start using it, you won’t go back to ‘traditional’ media consumption. He also said he’s seeing more big brands (such as Geico, Burger King) entering the podcast advertising market
    • Pattiz mentioned several revenue streams for podcasting including  advertising, subscriptions, product placement, merchandising and personality endorsements
    • Tom Leykis on the podcast panel said his podcast was less like traditional talk radio and more of a social network, where he could invite fans to events. Leykis said making money in podcasting was all about engaging the ‘true fans,’ the P-1s were his bread and butter
    • Leykis gave props to NPR for being ahead of commercial radio in rolling out a rich library of podcasts, offering narrowed down well produced content
    • Panelists suggested chopping long form talk radio shows into smaller slices, offering digital listeners interviews and shorter segments, rather than posting the entire show in a single podcast. (Although Leykis doubted that many commercial stations would pay someone $40k a year to make this happen)
    • In his ‘state of the industry’ address at the end of the day, RAIN Summit West founder Kurt Hanson said, except for Pandora, the online radio listening audience will remain flat for the next several years. Hanson likened today’s Internet broadcasting to the ‘great divide’ of days past.  Hanson said that’s when the FCC made broadcasters do more on their FM signals than simulcast their AM stations. Hanson says FM radio took off only when listeners could hear something that they weren’t already getting on AM
    • DRONES are big this year – both on the show floor – and in NAB sessions, with panels talking about the future of using drones for newsgathering, and the legal aspects of using them now and in the future
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    USA's Top 10 Billing Radio Stations in 2014

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  • KIIS Los Angeles – $65.9 million – iHeartMedia – up $4M YOY for 2nd straight year
  • WTOP Washington DC – $63.5 million – Hubbard
  • “Z100” WHTZ New York – $51 million – iHeartMedia
  • 880 WCBS New York – $49.2 million – CBS
  • “104.3 My-FM”KBIG Los Angeles – $42.9 million – iHeartMedia
  • “106.7 Lite-FM” WLTW New York – $41.5 million – iHeartMedia
  • 1010 WINS New York – $41 million – CBS
  • 660/101.9 WFAN New York – $41 million – CBS
  • KROQ Los Angeles – $40.5 million – CBS
  • 780 WBBM/105.9 WCFS Chicago – $39.2 million – CBS
    • Radio as a whole generated $14.3 billion from over-the-air and an additional $636 million in online revenue in 2014. A slight decline in over-the-air revenues in 2014 was more than offset by an increase in online revenues, resulting in an overall revenue increase for the nation’s radio stations collectively. And in honor of April Fool’s Day, some of our favorite radio and other pranks this year:
    • Angel Radio in the UK told listeners they had to cut down on the number of hours they listened due to too many listeners!
    • An Irish station ran a news story regarding the International Naturist Association holding a meeting in a local hotel – and even had the hotel manager came on air to “confirm”
    • The Los Angeles City Council voted to move the City of Santa Monica “closer”. In approving the measure to relocate the beachfront town, they cited the desire to move it “at least, like, 20 minutes closer”
    • Amazon reverted back to its long ago – text heavy design Amazon_Retro_Front_Page
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    USA’s Top 10 Billing Radio Stations in 2014

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  • KIIS Los Angeles – $65.9 million – iHeartMedia – up $4M YOY for 2nd straight year
  • WTOP Washington DC – $63.5 million – Hubbard
  • “Z100” WHTZ New York – $51 million – iHeartMedia
  • 880 WCBS New York – $49.2 million – CBS
  • “104.3 My-FM”KBIG Los Angeles – $42.9 million – iHeartMedia
  • “106.7 Lite-FM” WLTW New York – $41.5 million – iHeartMedia
  • 1010 WINS New York – $41 million – CBS
  • 660/101.9 WFAN New York – $41 million – CBS
  • KROQ Los Angeles – $40.5 million – CBS
  • 780 WBBM/105.9 WCFS Chicago – $39.2 million – CBS
    • Radio as a whole generated $14.3 billion from over-the-air and an additional $636 million in online revenue in 2014. A slight decline in over-the-air revenues in 2014 was more than offset by an increase in online revenues, resulting in an overall revenue increase for the nation’s radio stations collectively. And in honor of April Fool’s Day, some of our favorite radio and other pranks this year:
    • Angel Radio in the UK told listeners they had to cut down on the number of hours they listened due to too many listeners!
    • An Irish station ran a news story regarding the International Naturist Association holding a meeting in a local hotel – and even had the hotel manager came on air to “confirm”
    • The Los Angeles City Council voted to move the City of Santa Monica “closer”. In approving the measure to relocate the beachfront town, they cited the desire to move it “at least, like, 20 minutes closer”
    • Amazon reverted back to its long ago – text heavy design Amazon_Retro_Front_Page
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    Trends for In-Car Listening

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    More streaming; SiriusXM may mean demise of car radios March 19, 2015 – By Richard Morgan – New York Post Video didn’t kill the radio star, but Sirius XM and streaming services like Pandora are taking it apart piece by piece. Terrestrial radio, after years of maintaining its vise-like grip as the dominant in-car entertainment provider, will soon see thousands of motorists turn it off, a Wall Street report on Wednesday forecasted. While terrestrial radio still owns an 80 percent share of car listenership, it will start to lose up to 1.5 percentage points a year of that market share as streamers like Pandora enter the market, the report said. Connected cars — meaning those equipped with 4G wireless broadband technology — are expected to account for 39 percent of US vehicles shipped this fall. But they’ll account for 60 percent by 2018. Radio’s endgame, according to the report by analyst Amy Yong of Macquarie Capital (USA), will be to appeal to increasingly smaller markets. The large markets will eventually belong to Sirius and Pandora, as well as other digital players with strong urban sales teams. Pandora, for instance, currently accounts for just 2 percent of listenership in the car. But its number of active users doubled in 2014 to 9 million. Sixty percent of all radio consumption is in the car, according to Parks Associates. And that makes it prime real estate for all audio entertainment companies — especially those looking for growth outside the home. Yong’s report predicts that Sirius, which already owns about 11 percent of the car-listenership market, will at least maintain if not grow its share through “its exclusive content, commercial-free appeal and sticky subscription-based model.” This means any gains by Sirius — as well as those by Pandora and other streaming services that develop relationships with automakers — will come out of terrestrial radio companies like Cumulus Media and iHeartMedia. Further tuning out the car radio will be what Yong calls “the entry of new deep-pocketed players like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.” iHeartMedia shares have fallen 36 percent in the last year. Cumulus is off 53 percent over the same period. Pandora has fallen 54 percent over the 12 months.]]>

    The Compelling Case for Radio vs. Streaming

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    Peter W. Burton, VP/GM, Bonneville International, Los Angeles, in December 2014 wrote about radio’s competitive position vis-à-vis online streaming services, stating that the choice of radio over streaming could not be clearer with an insightful depiction of broadcast radio’s enduring strength as the primary audio medium:

    I am sending this to those that I know in the buying community to be thoughtful, intelligent and considerate about where your money is placed. As we approach 2015, I realize you might be encouraged to replace a radio station or two for a pure play radio product. For various reasons, I would simply ask you to consider the following information. As an industry, broadcast radio is losing millions of dollars to pure play radio and I would be remiss if I didn’t defend our position. We have studied, watched and tested the pure play model as an ad vehicle extensively. It is our well thought out fact based opinion that pure play radio is not an appropriate replacement for a broadcast radio station, as the two are very different products.

    1. The pure play (mainly Pandora) registration process is a non-social login which doesn’t allow for verification of the actual user. Accuracy is not checked or audited in this area. So, verification of age, gender and location is inaccurate. Any claims of accuracy in this area should be questioned. From an overall audience standpoint, Pandora has gone as far as admitting in their annual report that there is duplication in their monthly user numbers. So, they have no idea how many total different listeners they have. Because of this, a cume number is impossible to come by with any accuracy. This would result in an impossible comparison between radio and the pure play streaming products from a total user standpoint.
    1. Pure plays (specifically Pandora) do not prompt on cell phones which is 80% of their listener base. So, unlike the PPM, they have no idea whether their users are hearing the ads or not. It also makes it impossible to come up with an accurate TSL figure. So, the two figures of cume and TSL used casino online in calculating AQH are derived in a completely different way. This makes the Triton numbers impossible to compare to that of Nielsen radio ratings as the two methodologies are completely different. Any accurate comparison between different mediums must utilize the same methodology to ensure accuracy. Additionally, audience metrics derived by streaming to an IP address is NOT the same as audience metrics that are generated by the Nielsen PPM device. In order for a broadcast radio station to be credited for listening, the device/person must be within actual hearing distance of the radio station signal. This is not the case with current streaming measurement. Pure plays are credited with audience even though the IP address continues to receive the stream while the listener is no longer present in the room.
    1. These two products are not only different but they should be considered different industries and never replaceable by the other. Evaluating and allowing pure play radio to aggregate all of its individual streams in a specific demographic is analogous to evaluating broadcaster’s aggregation of all its stations within a given market. At a minimum, they (specifically Pandora who has paid Triton Media to rate them) should break down its audience into the 25 major formats to get a truly accurate view of its relative strength in relation to broadcast stations. Radio delivers a message simultaneously to hundreds of thousands/millions of people verses the audio pure plays delivering them one-to-one with no capability of generating simultaneous exposure and reach.

    In Southern California, 94% of the population is reached by radio. This is a larger figure than Cable, Broadcast TV, and print and certainly pure play radio (by a wide margin). Unlike pure plays, broadcast stations provide format purity enabling advertisers to match their messaging with the mindset of the listeners at the time of exposure. What’s going on inside the listeners mind is the most important environment of all. Please understand that we believe that pure play radio products like Pandora and Spotify are good consumer products, but not suitable advertising vehicles. They are especially not suitable when considering the replacement of a radio station as they simply deliver something at a totally different level in a different way. They (specifically Pandora) have had to morph themselves into an ad vehicle in order to survive financially, so accurate measurement of listenership was a necessary afterthought.

    Peter concluded by saying he appreciates your consideration on all these points and welcomes a conversation on 323-692-5401 if you have thoughts, concerns or questions.

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