Insideradio.Com
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015 Two-thirds of smartphones sold don’t have FM — Apple the biggest culprit. The number of FM-enabled phones may’ve increased last year but the feature remained silent in a vast majority of the smartphones sold in the U.S. in 2014. That’s according to an analysis of the sales data by NAB Labs. “Two out of three phones are not enabled at all for FM, either because the chip is not in there or not hooked up,” NAB Labs senior director Skip Pizzi said at the NAB Show. Nineteen percent of handsets were sold with FM enabled, up from low-single digits a few years ago. NAB Labs says another 8% of phones sold didn’t have FM turned on, although some version of the handset sold overseas does include the feature. Broadcasters have been lobbying wireless carriers to embrace FM but the analysis suggests Apple holds the key. Pizzi said the number of phones sold without FM keeps rising, and he attributes that to the iPhone, which made up roughly half of all smartphones sold last year. “Even when the carrier wants to enable the phone for FM, Apple doesn’t make the hardware that way and they call the shots,” he said. It’s why the iPhone remains the only Sprint phone not offering FM. But there’s another “Sprint effect” that’s something to call home about. As the NextRadio deal with Sprint ramped up last year, four-times as many phones with FM were sold. But Pizzi says the data also shows Sprint alone won’t be the solution with sales having plateaued at about eight million per quarter. “We are topping out,” Pizzi noted. “It’s great that we sell this many each quarter and get them into the marketplace, but it looks to me like we need those other carriers and all the manufacturers, particularly Apple, to jump in before we get any further along than this,” he said. Rdio plans to add broadcast streams to its platform. Pureply webcaster Rdio is getting into the aggregation business. The company, which has a content and sales partnership with Cumulus Media, is inviting broadcast groups to add their live station streams to its digital music menu. Branded as Rdio Live, it would give broadcasters the same types of features, functionality and experience that pure digital services offer, such as album art, track info and the ability for listeners to thumb-up, thumb-down and share tracks. Rdio Live would recommend local stations to users based on what the service knows about them from their Facebook profile. A Keep Listening button would remind users of stations they listened to recently. At yesterday’s RAIN Summit in Las Vegas, CEO Anthony Bay pitched it as a way for broadcast radio to reach the billions of devices that don’t have broadcast radio tuners, such as connected TV devices like Roku, where Rdio is featured. He called it “an opportunity to reinvent radio by taking advantage of the innovation occurring in the digital world.”Of course, Rdio would also like to leverage broadcast radio’s reach to lure more subscribers to its on demand music service. Subscribers could download a song they heard on a station stream and add it to a playlist. Broadcasters, too, could use it as a gateway to deeper user experiences of their own, such as exclusive stations and on-demand content, like that day’s “Top 10 at 10” feature, which would live on a participating station’s dedicated page. “There’s all sorts of thing you can do,” Bay said. “Done properly, we think broadcast stations can be one of the top things people listen to when they’re using apps.” New smell, but familiar sound as radio cume holds steady in newer cars. Radio cume remains steady in newer cars. Broadcast radio’s cume remains the same for motorists, whether they drive a newer, tech-friendlier vehicle or an older model. But given the greater available listening choices, newer car drivers spend less time with the medium than those with older cars, according to new data from Edison Research and Triton Digital. Culled from the 2015 Infinite Dial study and presented in Las Vegas, the newly- [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015 released findings show 85% of motorists say they cut-currently ever use AM/FM radio in the car — regardless of whether that car is model year 2010-to present or a 2009 model or earlier. AM/FM also remained No. 1 with drivers, regardless of the age of their car, when survey participants were asked what they use all or most of the time, albeit by a lower margin. Just under half (48%) of new car drivers said they listen to radio most behind the wheel, 11 percentage points lower than among older car drivers (59%). Participants who said they use their iPod or smartphones most grew from 13% to 22%, while internet radio inched up from 6% to 10%. “Internet radio is still relatively low for usage in the car,” Edison president Larry Rosin said. “All of this this relates to where things are going, which is having a connected car with easy integration between the phone and the car.” The survey shows satellite radio received the biggest bump from consumers replacing their old cars. Those that report using it most or all the time quadrupled from 5% of older car users to 21% of newer car drivers. Voltair catches the ear of the MRC. Widespread use of Voltair by broadcasters in PPM markets has caught the attention of the Media Rating Council. The ratings watchdog is in talks with Nielsen about potentially evaluating Nielsen’s ongoing tests of the audio processor. But the precise role the MRC may play hasn’t been nailed down yet. Nielsen approached the MRC about possibly evaluating its tests of Voltair-processed PPM code, according to MRC CEO George Ivie, but it’s still early in the process. “We have not evaluated, tested or otherwise concluded on any impact the device may have on broadcasting, encoding, code receipt or Nielsen audience estimates,” he told Inside Radio. Should Nielsen decide to improve its encoders, Ivie said the new technology would be subject to rigorous MRC testing. Nielsen would first need to do its own internal testing for internal quality purposes, after which CPA auditors hired by the MRC would do their own independent testing. “In general, changes need to be improvements in encoding or code-capture efficacy,” Ivie said. “We are very unlikely to approve degradations in these processes.” Any changes would need to pass muster with Nielsen clients, in addition to the MRC. “Everything we do on audio goes before the MRC and we want to make sure that all of our clients are comfortable with any recommendation we make in the marketplace,” Nielsen EVP & managing director of local media Matt O’Grady said. Typical MRC testing of how the PPM receives station codes involves both lab and field environments, including some in respondent household and out-of-home environments. Conditions in lab environments are closely controlled for audio levels, noise and other factors. Tests cover an assortment of audio programming and languages. Voltair ‘high priority’ for Nielsen. Although it’s been conducting internal lab tests of the Voltair audio processor for several months, Nielsen says it’s too early to draw conclusions from them. Until the trials are completed, Nielsen EVP Matt O’Grady says the company won’t take a position on the product. The company also has no timeframe for when the trials will be completed. “This is a very high priority for us, we’re moving rapidly and moving diligently on it,” O’Grady told Inside Radio, adding that test results will be shared with clients, Voltair developer The Telos Alliance and the marketplace. Installed in a station’s audio chain, the Voltair box monitors and displays PPM encoding quality based on programming material. Stations can simulate decoding quality in various listener environments and actively process their signals to optimize PPM encoding. Programmers say it has a direct impact on ratings and uncovers shortcomings in Nielsen’s signal encoders. Acknowledging the importance of maintaining the integrity of the PPM system, O’Grady stopped short of saying what Nielsen might do if the tests showed that Voltair improved encoding. “We’re not saying there are any shortcomings,” he said. “The PPM system is a proven and established technology that is accredited.” Although it told clients in a memo last week that “it does not recommend that clients use Voltair until the testing and validation is complete,” O’Grady says there won’t be any negative consequences from Nielsen for stations that continue to use it and the company has no way of knowing which ones are. “We are not telling them to turn it off,” O’Grady said. “It’s their decision.” [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015 Radio Disney recommits to radio — this time HD Radio is the foundation. Eight months after announcing plans to sell its portfolio of mostly AM stations and focus on digital and satellite radio distribution, Radio Disney is making a fresh commitment to broadcast radio. This time the Mouse House will be built on an HD Radio foundation. The Walt Disney Company has announced a distribution deal with iBiquity’s HD Radio Ad Network to distribute the Radio Disney network on as many as 60 digital subchannels.