Better Digital Inventory Insight for Broadcasters
Broadcasters are selling more and more ads across multi media platforms – according to a report in Inside Radio last week, about 80% of Clear Channel’s on-air advertisers now include a digital component — streaming or otherwise — in their buys. That’s good news for the industry that needs to expand content distribution to multiple channels and learn to manage and monetize ad inventory on all of them.
Marketron, the leading provider of inventory management software for radio stations, is rolling out a new application that significantly improves radio’s ability to sell and manage comprehensive cross-media advertising campaigns. Marketron’s new Revenue Builder enables better inventory management across media platforms, which will definitely spur sales growth.
Cox Radio will install Marketron Revenue Builder across its entire group of 86 radio stations. “Cox has a very successful digital strategy,” states Neil Johnston, CFO of Cox Media. “Marketron Revenue Builder gives our local stations a great advantage and an opportunity to increase sales, streamline processes and provide an unlimited array of services to our advertisers.” Cox has always had a sophisticated interactive platform and approach to sales, they were one of the first groups to stream all of their stations.
Marketron Revenue Builder is a market-changing application for radio groups. Some radio organizations have done a great job selling their digital assets but are challenged by complex and labor-intensive processes at the operational level. Revenue Builder enables stations to track and manage cross platform inventory from sales through billing in the same way they manage their broadcast business. Any radio company competing for online dollars should consider this solution.
Add comment February 8, 2010
Internet Radio’s Finest to Gather in Toronto, Las Vegas
RAIN: Radio and Internet Newsletter has announced dates for two exciting, informative and prestigious industry events. On March 12th in Toronto during Canadian Music Week, RAIN will host its first Canadian RAIN Summit, featuring interesting speakers and topics related to Internet radio both in Canada and the United States.
On April 12th, RAIN will host its annual flagship event at the Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas. This event takes place during and is an official co-located event of the NAB Show. It’s the premiere educational and networking event for Internet radio. Broadcast radio executives, Internet radio entrepreneurs, and sales and technology visionaries convene at the Renaissance Hotel adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center for engaging panels and presentations on technical and legal aspects of the business, programming expertise and business strategies. All RAIN Summit registrants will also receive access to the 2010 NAB Show exhibits.
Join RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson and a slate of industry leaders for a full day of information and networking in Las Vegas, or an afternoon’s worth in Toronto – or both! Then end the day socializing with other broadcasters and webcasters at the famous RAIN Summit cocktail party.
Get more information about the Toronto RAIN Summit here, and preliminary info on the Las Vegas event here. See you there!
Add comment February 4, 2010
WEEI Scores With New iPhone App
Boston sports fans have a new way to stay connected with their Sox and Pats, not to mention Celts and Bruins, with WEEI’s new iPhone app. Tim Murphy, Vice President/General Manager of WEEI.com says the new app gives fans a full 360-degree Boston sports experience right in the palm of their hands.
The application, designed by WEEI in partnership with jacAPPS, the mobile division of Jacobs Media, is the most complete sports radio and news application available for the iPhone. All content from WEEI Radio and WEEI.com is available in this application, including popular features like LIVE streaming, On Demand Audio, live local scores, WEEI.com blogs & columns featuring news and commentary from WEEI.com’s world-class team of journalists.
Impressive features include the ability to listen to live WEEI audio, while scrolling through news, scores and stories. Most iPhone streaming applications do not allow for multi-tasking on the device while streaming. On demand audio and video and a live streaming feature that allows the user to jump back 10 minutes and replay the audio are other standout features of this app.
“WEEI has been leading the digital shift in Boston Sports media since we made our initial upgrades in content and design back in August 2008,” Murphy said. “We’re convinced this new cutting-edge iPhone application will help us continue to dominate in the digital space.” Fans of Boston sports that do not have iPhones can still access WEEI streaming audio on their mobile device through Entercom’s partnership with Flycast.
WEEI’s a big station for Entercom, and they have diligently invested in tools and talent to enhance and expand their digital footprint with sports fans in Boston. An iPhone app makes a lot of sense as yet another way to brand and connect with their audience.
Add comment February 3, 2010
Bridge Ratings has released a new study on Internet radio listeners that provides some insight into the differences between listeners to AM/FM stations’ streams and pure-play, or Internet-only stations. Over 60 million Americans are listening to Internet radio weekly, with 84% spending at least five minutes listening to AM/FM streams and 62% to Internet based stations. AM/FM streams see a higher tsl as well, averaging about 2.5 hours per day versus 1.4 hours per day for Internet only stations. 
But expect that to change. According to this report, AM/FM streams are at risk of losing audience because of their approach to streaming, which is generally simply a redistribution of their over the air content. Internet radio listeners think Internet only stations are more adventurous and provide more options for music discovery. Dave Van Dyke, President of Bridge Ratings, recommends that AM/FM stations develop alternative channels for their streams to offset future audience attrition.
When it comes to who is listening on mobile devices, Internet only listeners listen 18% of the time while AM/FM listeners spend only 8%. This of course, is a factor in the lower time spent listening number that Internet only stations have, as mobile listening sessions are going to be shorter than in-office or other more static listening.
There are some good takeaways in this research for AM/FM online stations that wish to optimize their audience growth. Broadcasters must stop viewing their streaming platform as a replay of their AM/FM programming and create new, exciting, alternative programming for their listeners. As I said in my list of ways to build a better digital presence, station managers must shift their thinking away from the idea that the on-air product is the most important element of their business, and recognize that the content is what matters.
1 comment February 2, 2010
Study Shows Podcast Consumers Are Unique
The Association for Downloadable Media has released a study on Consumer Attitudes toward Podcast Advertising. Podcast consumers indicated that they listen to audio podcasts weekly and subscribe to several podcasts each week.
The ability to listen to the content whenever and wherever they want is important to them. These particular consumers also indicate a pretty low frequency of other mainstream media usage. Edison Research’s Tom Webster translates that to mean “A podcast advertising buy is not a redundant media buy for advertisers and marketers. These are attractive, affluent consumers that mass media is losing.”
They own mobile phones that can play audio files, and they listen on their phones. 9 out of 10 podcast consumers prefer advertising within the content to the idea of paying for their content through a subscription fee. However, when asked how they 
feel about those advertisements, only 2% said they liked them and found them useful. The majority either liked or didn’t like them and occasionally found them useful. They were more positive about sponsorship messages, 72% were either interested in them or didn’t mind them and occasionally found them useful; and 82% reacted that way to sponsorship mentions by program hosts.
A nice majority of podcast consumers indicated that they had taken action after hearing or seeing advertising in audio or video content, with 71% of respondents visiting a web site after hearing a message. Of course, this is not the response rate to any advertising, since these are behaviors that podcast consumers indicate they have ever done, not responses to every ad.
It’s an interesting study that could prove helpful in building value for advertising in podcast platforms. I have begun to wonder about the long term viability of podcasting as a mass appeal platform, as the content that I used to download onto my ipod is now available for on-demand streaming, so I no longer need to subscribe, download and transfer to my portable device. An approach that highlights the podcast population as an appealing group of consumers who are difficult to reach in other ways makes sense, and that’s what this study provides.
Add comment February 1, 2010
Study: Radio Lifts Brand Browsing By 52%
A new study released by the RAB in the UK suggests that radio advertising can boost brand browsing by an average of 52%. Radio: The Online Multiplier is a report based on research conducted with a random sample of people who were exposed to 23 radio campaigns. There is no indication that any of these campaigns were Internet radio based, I think they were all broadcast radio advertising campaigns.The most exciting finding is that listeners who are online and hear an ad are 52% more likely to browse for the brand they hear an ad for. What’s more, 58% of that browsing takes place within 24 hours of hearing an ad, indicating that radio can have an immediate and positive impact for brands.
More mature online categories such as travel, insurance, and telecom, where consumers have become accustomed to shopping and doing research online, saw the most lift from radio. The best performing ads had a clear call to action with a url or simple web address.
Add comment January 28, 2010
iheartradio Launches New Channel
Clear Channel’s relationship with Verizon will put the broadcaster’s iheartradio digital platform on Verizon’s FiOS high speed network, available to FiOS customers, according to a report in Inside Radio. It’s a move that expands upon a strong relationship between Verizon and Clear Channel that put iheartradio on VCast, Verizon’s mobile entertainment platform, in December.
Clear Channel COO Gerrit Meier tells Inside Radio (which is owned by Clear Channel) that iheartradio has established itself as a brand over the past year, and they’re ready to expand the places where it is available. They’re also expanding the platform’s offerings – this time with CBGB Radio – a new channel devoted to the New York Club that was founded in 1973 and launched the careers of the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Patti Smith and other big names in punk and new wave music. The new channel will feature music, artist interviews and commentary from those associated with the club formerly located on Bleeker Street.
It’s a great concept – taking an iconic club from music history and recreating it online. The club closed in October 2006, but lives on at iheartradio.com .
Add comment January 27, 2010
Study: Kids listen to Internet Radio As Much as Broadcast Radio
- Music in the lives of kids has increased to more than two and a half hours a day since the last study.
- Among 15- to 18-year-olds, just under half (45%) say they have ever listened to the radio through the Internet.
- On an average day, an 8-18 year old spends 32 minutes listening to music online, 32 minutes on (broadcast) radio.
- They dedicate the same portion of listening time to Internet radio as they do to broadcast radio (23%).
The main conclusions of the study focus on the fact that young people’s lives are “filled to the bursting point with media,” as they pack nearly 11 hours of media content into 7.5 hours per day (thanks to multi-tasking). According to the study, “The transformation of the cell phone into a media content delivery platform, and the widespread adoption of the iPod and other MP3 devices, have facilitated an explosion in media consumption among American youth.”
You can read more about the study at RAIN.
1 comment January 26, 2010
New Audience Data Shows Pandora’s Mobile Audience
AndoMedia has released December Webcast Metrics reports on Internet radio audience for December 2010. The most noteworthy change in the ranker over the past several months is the inclusion of mobile listeners as part of Pandora’s data. Although it’s not broken out to show the station’s mobile audience on its own, Pandora’s total week (monday – sunday 6am-mid) audience grew by 45 million sessions from November to December – increasing that number to 150,821,223 session starts in the month. Average Active Listeners for total week for Pandora grew over 30% to 261,714.
Ando’s press release pointed out that December data shows a decline toward the end of the month due to the reduction of in-office listening. Despite the prolonged holiday in December, several stations/groups saw audience grow, including CBS Radio, Clear Channel, Entercom and Cox. Online station Digitally Imported’s number grew to reflect the incorporation of sister stations Sky.fm and JazzRadio.
AccuRadio, an online station that offers a wide variety of holiday programming saw a boost of 30% in its average active listener number.
Webcast Metrics December 2010 All Streams Total Week
Add comment January 25, 2010
Study: One in Five Online Are Listening to Internet Radio
A study by Media Consulting Firm L.E.K. advises advertisers to consider Internet radio as part of its new media strategy. The study, which interviewed 2,000 US households, found that “Among active radio listeners, 32% use Internet radio services on a weekly basis, logging an average of 5.8 hrs per week per user.”
The goals of the study were to “uncover new opportunities for media companies and advertisers to consider, expose several major myths about new media usage, and confirm several of today’s media market realities.”
It’s an all encompassing study that weighs in on many traditional and new media categories. Among some of the other findings, the study notes that e-Readers are driving new consumption in the book and magazine market, physical newspapers are losing relevance, 52% of music consumption is via radio, and the 50+ demographic spends more time online than the 25-39 age group.
Offering just a few conclusive recommendations, the study emphasizes that “as consumers continue to multi-task more and more, advertisers should consider Internet radio as an up-and-coming media outlet since 19% of people spending time online for various purposes are simultaneously listening to music via the Internet.”
L.E.K. Consumption Media Study December 2009
So, to reframe for purely Internet radio perspectives:
- 32% of radio listeners are listening to Internet radio weekly
- They are listening for an average of 5.8 hours per week
- 19% of the online population are listening to Internet radio while doing other things online
In case you want to put that in your powerpoint, the summary of the study is here.
Add comment January 21, 2010
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