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800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 Steadman Says Voltair’s Plans Proceeding. For a man at the center of the Voltair firestorm, Geoff Steadman doesn’t sound very worried—and for good reason. Steadman, president of Voltair manufacturer 25-Seven Systems—a division of Telos—says Nielsen’s slap at the unit during Tuesday’s announcement, and its pledge to update its PPM watermarking technology, hasn’t exactly dampened demand for it. In fact, the team behind the controversial audio-processing box says it wrote up more Voltair orders after the Nielsen announcement, and it plans to announce version 2.0 of the unit shortly. Steadman admits reaction from broadcasters has run a wide gamut. Some told him they’re now more comfortable moving ahead with plans to purchase the unit, since Nielsen didn’t order clients to stop using it. Others now see Voltair as “an insurance policy,” Steadman says, in the event that Nielsen’s encoding update falls short of expectations. Still others, he admits, see less of a need now that Nielsen has announced plans to offer something similar to all PPM clients—at no additional cost. “We’re closing in on 700, with more orders since the webinar,” Steadman tells Inside Radio. The units sell for $15,000. And the coming of version 2.0 is bound to mix things up further. The next-gen Voltair is, in fact, already in use at several dozen stations, Steadman says, adding that it offers extended monitoring capabilities and enables “some serious data analysis.” The new unit’s front panel display will send a real-time data output of original and enhanced encoding quality to a server, provide history files for import into spreadsheets and allow for quality performance monitoring. Steadman believes having Voltair in the market serves broadcasters well. “Voltair caused Nielsen to pay attention to parts of the PPM eco-system they have control over,” he says. Radio Turns Prime Day Into Primo Day. Here are some fascinating figures for your shopping cart: Cumulus Media and Westwood One joined with research firm Ipsos to discover what people knew about Amazon.com’s first-ever Prime Day event that took place last Monday—and how they knew about it. The results: One out of every five Americans who reported making an online purchase from Amazon that day did so because of advertising, and the new Cumulus-commissioned study says radio advertising was the most effective method for converting knowledge to buys—52% of those exposed to the radio ads made a purchase, vs. 39% for TV and 48% online. The sale received incredible promotion, according to the Ipsos figures. By the time it happened, 74% of all Americans were aware of it and 81% said they were exposed to some kind of advertising for it. But the buyers were really radio’s red meat: Cumulus says 53% of those who purchased that day due to advertising were 18-to-34 year-olds, a demo that makes up 45% of Amazon Prime’s subscribers. And 62% of those who heard radio ads for Amazon Prime Day were 18-to-34. “Advertising put Amazon Prime Day on the map, and radio was the most effective at converting awareness into purchases,” said Pierre Bouvard, CMO of Cumulus Media and Westwood One. “The greatest Amazon Prime Day purchases occurred among millennials, households with children, and those with a full-time job—precisely the profile of the American radio listener.” The online survey of 1,005 Americans was conducted from July 17 to July 20, 2015, using the Ipsos U.S. eNation service. Scripps Buys Podcast Network Midroll. With the way that Americans consume audio continuing to shift, the E.W. Scripps Company has become the latest broadcaster to jump into the fast-growing podcasting business. The Cincinnati-based company, which owns 34 radio stations in eight markets, has acquired Los Angeles-based Midroll Media, which operates the largest [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 podcast sponsorship network. Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. The deal comes four months after Scripps reentered the radio business via a mega-merger with Journal Communications. More than 46 million Americans download at least one podcast per month, according to numbers released in June by Edison Research. The move helps Scripps tap into podcasting’s young, passionate audience. The broadcaster says the acquisition will also help diversify its digital media revenue streams and complement its digital media portfolio, which includes over-the-top video news service Newsy, and paid weather app company WeatherSphere. L.A.-based Midroll, whose name is derived from the term for commercials placed midway through a podcast, operates a network that works with 240 advertisers and 200 shows, including “StartUp” and “Nerdist,” and “WTF with Marc Maron,” which recently grabbed national headlines for its interview with President Barack Obama. Midroll also creates original podcasts. Midroll Media CEO Adam Sachs, along with the rest of the leadership team, will remain at the helm of the company. Rich Boehne, chairman, president and CEO of Scripps, said podcasting has emerged as “one of the best new platforms to build organically growing audiences and revenue streams” and that adding the platform will dovetail with “a commitment to journalism and nonfiction storytelling” that both companies share. Copyright Update Could Be Royal Pain For Radio. As it works to update U.S. copyright law for the digital age, the House Judiciary Committee, and its chairman, Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), issued invitations to all the witnesses that participated in its copyright review hearings during the past two years to meet with its staff and provide additional input. This next step in the committee’s review is vital to radio because supporters of a performance royalty have closely tied the issue to the larger review of the copyright law. The Committee has so far held 20 hearings with 100 witnesses. The lack of a radio performance royalty has come up at several of the hearings, including one where Maria Pallante, register of copyrights, said a century of regulating music has produced a number of “oddities,” such as the lack of a radio royalty. Her comments reiterated a report on the music industry released by the Copyright Office last year, which also advocated for a radio performance royalty. The Judiciary Committee is also inviting “any interested party to come and discuss their interests in copyright law” during the next phase of the review. The NAB Leads a Light Lobbying Grid. Only two trade organizations and three media giants have spent more on lobbying than iHeartMedia so far in 2015, but even so, it’s been a light year for lobbying, according to information compiled by Open Sources and Katy on the Hill, two valuable Congressional watchdog organizations. To date in 2015, iHeart has spent $1.15 million, sixth in the TV/movies/music category of businesses and organizations, and just behind the RIAA, which has spent $1.18 million. The NAB is the top spender in that category, having paid out $4.72 million so far this year. Nobody else is even in that ballpark. Last year, the NAB spent $19 million on lobbying and iHeart spent $4.45 million, but meatier issues may develop as various cans are kicked further down the road and there are no national elections. A big issue for the NAB and others has been to fight a proposal that would stop companies from deducting advertising as a business expense. Other NAB issues have included drone legislation; the upcoming spectrum auction; the FCC’s ownership rules; and the Local Radio Freedom Act, the non-binding resolution that opposes a performance royalty for radio. iHeart lobbyists weighed in on broadcast indecency rules; the AM Revitalization Act; and proposals to regulate broadcast and online advertising sponsorship identifications, among many other issues. Other top spenders related to the radio/audio business include Sound Exchange, the digital performance rights group, which has spent $240,000; Broadcasting Media Partners at $237,500; ASCAP, $180,000; National Music Publishers Assn., $160,000; NARAS, $141,312; BMI, $90,000; Tribune Media, $83,000; Live Nation, $55,000; SiriusXM Radio, $50,000; National Alliance of State Broadcasters, $40,000; Entravision, $30,000; and the New York State Broadcasters Assn., $30,000. Seeing Is Believing In Radio-Time Increase. Digital technology has brought visual elements to what was once an audio-only medium. New research shows that combining the two is helping increase the amount of time consumers spend with radio. The data comes from Emmis, developer of the NextRadio app that awakens FM receivers built into smartphones. Emmis looked at listening done via the app for 100 stations that recently began providing full content on the NextRadio app, such as album art, [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 DJ photos, contests and concert info. The analysis showed those stations experienced a 14.3% increase in Average Session Length (ASL) through the app within the first three months of switching from TagStation’s basic free logo user interface to the premium one that comes with all the bells and whistles. TagStation is the Emmis-owned company that provides the backend for NextRadio broadcasts. Emmis says this translates into three additional minutes of radio listening per day for stations providing the additional info. The study turned up differences by format. Talk stations shot up an average of 30% compared to music stations, which grew 14%. Formats with the highest ASL increase were adult hits (40%), country (30%), sports (27%), Spanish music (20%) and hip- hop (10%).