Smith reaffirms radio’s role in NAB keynote

INSIDERADIO

4/14-16/2015
 

Gordon Smith used the occasion of his fifth anniversary as president of the National Association of Broadcasters to declare broadcast radio and television "more important today than they have ever been," despite a cavalcade of technology changes that have occurred since he first spoke at the NAB Show in 2010. "While citizens may be feeling bombarded by so much information and confused about how to distill it — confused about finding the truth — broadcasting is giving our communities coherence," Smith said during a convention-opening keynote Monday in Las Vegas. He called broadcast radio and television "the glue that keeps us together." But broadcasters need to keep reminding policymakers of broadcasting’s "immense value to their communities," Smith warned. For radio, the message includes ensuring new royalty rates "will fairly compensate artists while encouraging more radio stations to stream" and fighting back renewed efforts in Congress to enact performance royalty legislation. Smith’s message came on the same day a bill was introduced in Congress during a high-profile media event in New York, where co-sponsors were surrounded by Elvis Costello, Roseanne Cash, Cyndi Lauper and dozens of other musicians. Smith also spoke about working towards "common-sense ownership rules that reflect today’s media landscape." He talked up NextRadio, which NAB Labs played a key role in, calling it part of "radio’s exciting evolution," and pledged further support. He predicted as some digital platforms "come and go like so many endangered species — but broadcasting will always be there, when all else fails" and pointed to this year’s NAB Show as "a tangible demonstration of how broadcasters are innovating."

 

Nielsen ready to launch streaming audio measurement service. Radio’s long and winding road to total audience measurement is nearly over. After a seven-month delay, Nielsen is about to reveal its digital audience measurement service. "The official launch is coming very soon," Nielsen SVP of digital Jeff Wender said at the NAB Show yesterday. "The technology is there and we have the infrastructure in place." Along with providing a more complete picture of a station’s audience, the new product will track on demand audio, podcasting and other forms of digital audio content produced by Nielsen clients. The system employs the same MRC-accredited methodology Nielsen has been using to measure online video consumption. Clients place measurement software in the media player of their streaming app or web browser, which captures listening data at the closest point to the actual consumption. Four basic metrics will be included in the streaming audience reports: Reach (number of listeners, sessions and quarter hours); Demographics (gender and age by daypart), Duration (Time Spent Listening) and Location (metro or DMA). Several of the largest streaming backbone providers, including Triton Digital and Wide Orbit, have integrated the software into the media players used by thousands of radio stations. A number of broadcasters are receiving preview data. "We built this new software so we get the best understanding of who is consuming the content," Wender said. "We can capture all the juicy

Under the hood of Nielsen’s new digital audio measurement service. Nielsen’s new streaming audio measurement service will provide an alternative to Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics, which has long served as the industry scorecard. Nielsen’s new product will provide more demographic data than Triton, without relying on clients to collect the data themselves. It instead will tap technology widely used in the digital display and video advertising worlds. When a user launches a stream, Nielsen measurement software is automatically activated and begins collecting the necessary info: the station’s unique identifier, the length of the listening session and timestamps. It also detects an ID number unique to each listener, a technology first developed by Apple and Google for mobile advertising. That ID or key is sent to Facebook, which has a partnership with Nielsen and stores the same keys for its own user base. Facebook then matches the audience keys against its database and reports back to Nielsen the demographics of the streaming audience in aggregate form so individual users can’t be identified. To provide checks and balances, Nielsen will incorporate proprietary data from an internal calibration panel. After a lack of industry consensus about how digital audio data should be reported in the Mediaocean and Strata buying systems used by agencies, Nielsen has now clarified how it will differentiate between the different ad models used by webcasters. For streams that simulcast the same content and ads as their on-air broadcast, Nielsen will report their digital and on air listening – both separately and combined. Audience metrics for stations doing digital ad insertion won’t be combined and will be displayed in a separate tab. "Depending on the different type of advertising system that you put in place, we’ll measure both and make that information available," Nielsen SVP of digital Jeff Wender said.

Study: Radio prevails in connected car.

 

AM/FM radio remains the primary entertainment option in the car, where roughly half of all radio listening takes place, while connected sources like internet radio are secondary. So says new data from Strategy Analytics presented at the NAB Show. Eight in ten (79%) survey respondents called broadcast radio a "must have" in their car, far and away the top entertainment product of eight measured. Interest in having a CD player is "falling off rapidly"............

 

 

.........the new report says, in favor of music consumed on iPods and smartphones. While radio still rules the road, 58% of U.S. smartphone owners report using apps while driving and there is a growing desire for connected cars that make it easier to use them on the road. Nearly four in ten (37%) consider access to smartphones apps through the vehicle’s interface a "must have" feature for their next car. More entertainment options aren’t turning listeners away from broadcast radio, the data shows. For instance, 79% of consumers who listen to CD players and 76% that listen to internet radio in the car also listen daily to AM/FM radio. "The very users who want smartphone access in the car are the biggest radio users," Lanctot said. The study also uncovered a strong appetite for local information services in the car. Seven in ten daily radio users said they are very interested in real time traffic available through their car’s infotainment system, while 65% want info.

Colorado Gets All-Pot Station. Southern Colorado Radio has launched "K-High 1580." It’s the first station whose programming is dedicated to marijuana around the clock. SCR has struck a three-year lease deal with an option to buy Pilgrim Communications’ KHIG, which had been "Fox Sports Radio 1580" prior to Monday’s switch. Most broadcasters have shied away from taking medical marijuana dispensary advertising to date, fearing their federally-licensed stations could be in jeopardy. But SCR general manager Mike Knar tells the Colorado Springs Gazette that he’s signed on six local dispensaries as advertisers and billings are growing faster than expected. "Most people don’t get a response like this on radio, let alone for an AM station," he says. KHIG’s morning drive is called "Wake and Bake" followed by "High Noon" in middays and "High Drive" in afternoon drive.
 

 

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