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800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014 Radio remains No. 2 behind TV on fast-fragmenting media landscape. Radio’s reach expanded in the third quarter while TV’s cume diminished and smartphone adoption mushroomed, according to a new report from Nielsen. Radio’s monthly reach increased to 258.7 million, up from 257.4 million one year earlier. That put it closer to traditional TV, which slipped to 282.7 million monthly viewers from 283.7 million in 2013. A snapshot of the fast-fragmenting media universe, Nielsen’s new Total Audience Report shines a light on media consumption habits, device usage, and time spent across the cornucopia of ways consumers are connecting with content. At 2 hours and 44 minutes per day, radio remained the second most- used medium among eight media tracked by Nielsen. Broadcast radio out-performed smartphones, accessing the internet from a computer, time-shifted TV, game consoles, DVD/Blu-ray devices and multimedia devices. But like traditional TV and use of the internet on a computer, time spent with radio is slowly declining. Daily time spent with AM/FM radio among adults 18+ decreased from 2 hours and 51 minutes in the third quarter of 2012 to 2:47 in 2013 and to 2:44 in 2014. Generally the older the demo, the more time spent tuning in. Yet despite an older- skewing audience, AM/FM radio ranks second behind TV in weekly time spent for every measured demo. Adults 50-64 spent the most time with AM/FM radio: 14 hours and 57 minutes per week. Adults 35-49 racked up 13 hours and 48 minutes, followed by adults 25-34 (11:35), adults 18-24 (10:30) and teens 12-17 (7:23). The average number of radio stations tuned per month remained relatively constant: 6.9 stations in August 2012, 6.7 in 2013 and 6.7 in 2014. Total time spent with media continues to grow. Americans are spending more time consuming media content, not less. What’s changing is how they use it and the growing consumption taking place on digital platforms. Those are among the topline findings of Nielsen’s third-quarter Total Audience Report, formerly called the Cross-Platform Report. Smartphone penetration has reached 75%, a 15% jump over the same period last year. Nearly half of Americans own a tablet, up 59% from one year earlier. “Content is still king, but consumers are shaping their own content-discovery experience, and the evolving media landscape has not lessened consumer demand for quality, professionally-produced content,” says Nielsen SVP of insights Dounia Turrill. “What has changed is the number and reliability of new media available to viewers.” The study’s most profound findings have to do with how Americans are using TV. According to an analysis by Brian Wieser, total year-over-year TV viewing, including live TV plus time-shifting, fell 4% in the third quarter, twice as fast as the second [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014 quarter’s 2% decline. The fall-offs were much more severe among younger audiences. The study also shines a light on a multicultural America with differing media habits. Blacks, for instance, spend 61 hours a month with AM/FM radio compared to 58 hours for Hispanics and 59 hours for the total population. Report: Native ad spending on the rise. Instead of just blasting consumers with ads, marketers increasingly want to embed their message directly into the content. For radio, that’s led to more integrations like “Live from the Tasty Cakes studio” or “McDonald’s McCafe Chopper 880” traffic reports. Get ready for the trend to spread. Native ad spending will grow 34% next year to $4.3 billion, according to Socintel360. The biggest draw, according to executives interviewed by eMarketer, is consumer engagement. Native advertising is said to generate interaction and grab consumers’ attention in a way that more traditional ads cannot. “Traditional digital advertising has become wallpaper,” GE global head of media strategy Jason Hill tells eMarketer. “Brands that have a strong point of view and great partners to help them express it can enjoy massive engagement [with native].” CBS Local Digital Media president Ezra Kucharz expects the trend to accelerate, especially among bigger, more sophisticated marketers. “But it has to be content that is useful to the consumer and placed in the right context,” he says. Still, scale and measurement were cited as obstacles for native advertisers to overcome. And critics have argued that it improperly exploits consumer trust in a media outlet or outright deceives them. The Interactive Adverting Bureau has issued a Native Advertising Playbook to give advertisers advice on how to make it easier for consumers to identify what’s paid for. That also appears to be a concern at the Federal Trade Commission. During a FTC panel discussion on best practices last year, stakeholders repeatedly emphasized the importance of Americans being easily able to determine exactly who is talking to them in the content they consume. SiriusXM is carving out an expanding role in the connected car. There may be a lot of differences between broadcast and satellite radio and but executives at Sirius XM Radio have come to a similar conclusion about streaming. “I worry about streamers and what they can do to our model,” says Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, which holds a majority stake in SiriusXM. But like broadcast executives, he sees both threats and opportunities in streaming, saying the web will allow SiriusXM to offer new services to its users. “But I’m far from convinced that they have great business models,” Maffei said at Liberty Media’s recent shareholder meeting. Instead, he views safety and security features — ranging from help finding a car in a parking lot to remote car unlocking — as ways to boost SiriusXM’s customer retention. SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer pushed back against some on Wall Street who worry the connected car will lure some customers away to a free online option. “There are streamers who compete with us,” he said. “But by far the biggest in-car centric service is terrestrial radio with still over 220 million people listening to it.” With fewer than 15% of the 240 million cars on the road equipped with SiriusXM, Meyer told investors he doubts streaming will do much to slow the satcaster’s growth. He predicted the satellite service will be built into 100 million new and used vehicles by 2017 and 120 million cars by 2019. As that number expands, it will give SiriusXM a wider opening for its non-entertainment in-car tools. Meyer said the focus for now is on gaining share, not making money. “More importantly, it gives us a really strong relationship with the carmakers,” he added. To speed up KXMZ purchase, Pandora attorneys meet with Wheeler aides. Pandora is looking to jump start its long- delayed quest to buy hot AC “Hits 102.7” KXMZ, Rapid City, SD from Connoisseur Media. Attorneys met last week with legal aides to FCC chair Tom Wheeler to get the deal to the finish line. ASCAP has called the KXMZ deal a “blatant attempt” by Pandora to use the FCC to lower its royalty costs rather than serve the public. Its petition to deny has bogged down the license transfer. While Pandora hopes the deal will allow it to pay the same royalties as broadcasters, it’s not copyright issues that are behind the year-and-a-half delay. Instead, the proposed sale has become a test case for the FCC’s new policy of allowing foreign ownership of broadcast stations to exceed 25% on a case-by-case basis. Because it can’t say definitively how much of its stock is owned by foreign entities, Pandora is seeking a waiver to the decades-old cap. The KXMZ sale has the prospect of becoming a precedent for any other publicly-traded company looking to buy a station. The National [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014 Association of Broadcasters has remained neutral in the battle over whether Pandora should be allowed to buy KXMZ, but it believes the “the time is right” for the FCC to acknowledge its foreign ownership restrictions are “outdated.” The rest of the radio industry has been remarkably silent. Even so, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council believes agency approval may wind up helping minority owners overcome a “severe lack of access to domestic capital” by giving a clear signal to offshore investors. Without it, MMTC predicts there will be a “chilling effect” on efforts to lure foreign capital. Learfield’s next play is helping colleges expand into mobile. College play- by-play rights holder Learfield Sports is taking another step beyond radio with a new alliance targeting college sports fans on mobile devices. Its web solutions company, Sidearm Sports, has partnered with in-stadium app developer YinzCam to build a mobile platform for the colleges and universities on its bench. How that will look is to be determined, but YinzCam CEO Priya Narasimhan says it will “infuse new game-day experiences and technologies” into smartphones. Similar to radio stations that see a growing opportunity in helping clients build their digital business, Learfield is working with college athletic organizations to grow their digital efforts. Five months ago it bought Sidearm Sports, which works with 750 school athletic programs — more than seven-times the number of colleges that have their multimedia rights with Learfield.