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800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2015 Broadcasters, Analysts Weigh In On Connected Car Survey. A new report from JD Power found 20% of new-vehicle owners said they never used 16 of 33 in-car tech features and nearly one third indicated they have never used in-vehicle apps. Bob Pittman, iHeartMedia chairman & CEO, says the findings corroborate earlier research from Ipsos, showing 91% of consumers say they prefer physical AM/FM radio buttons and controls built into the car dashboard while 9% said they would want it changed into a dashboard app. “While digital apps may get more attention from news media, we focus on listening to the consumer — and nothing surpasses AM/FM radio as the No. 1 way consumers want to experience entertainment in the car,” Pittman said. Automakers are still trying to discern exactly what the public wants in new car technology, according to Roger Lanctot, associate director in the Global Automotive Practice at Strategy Analytics. “Carmakers are throwing a lot of pasta at the wall and some of it is sticking and some of is not,” he said. Automakers are in a “middle phase” of discerning consumer wants and needs and there have been some slip-ups and stumbles along the way, he added. Despite a growing variety of content coming into the car, Lanctot said Strategy Analytics studies show “radio is still the tent pole but new options are creating a greater fragmentation of the audience.” While some of the options are from web pureplays, others leverage broadcast radio, including new product launches from Rdio and TuneIn. Meanwhile HD Radio penetration is getting “wider and wider,” according to Lanctot. “The challenge for car makers is making [new options] easier to use and none are as easy to use as turning on a radio,” he said. Why Radio Remains Dominant in the Car. As automakers work to align their vehicle connectivity offerings with consumer wants and needs, one connected car expert says radio will retain a prominent position in the digital dashboard. The demographics of new vehicle purchasers are a big reason why. The fastest growing U.S. car buying population segments are middle aged and older consumers, according to Strategy Analytics associate director Roger Lanctot. Both segments have been shown to spend more time with radio than others. Another reason has to do with the local traffic, news, sports and weather that broadcast radio is known for. “Radio absolutely is the original location-based service,” Lanctot said. “The auto industry is spending billions of dollars to produce what is already there.” Lanctot said it’s tough for anyone to beat local broadcasters when it comes to traffic and other essential community information. “Having that intelligent voice telling you what’s going on – no one has replaced that,” he said. At the same time Lanctot believes there’s no turning back from connected cars. “We can’t put this genie back in the bottle,” he said. Pierre Bouvard, chief marketing officer for Cumulus Media and Westwood One, said it will be a while before streaming audio becomes a mainstream activity in the car. “Asking about streaming in the car is like asking about FM in the car in 1963,” Bouvard said. “It sounded like a cool idea but another decade had to pass to get the FM radios in the cars and it was easy for consumers to figure out.” Bouvard pointed to Edison Research’s Share of Ear study which showed AM/FM with a 71% share of in car audio listening, followed by Sirius XM (14%), owned music (12%), all streaming (2%) and podcasts (1%). Agency Survey: Audio Moves Up As Client Priority. The number of ad agencies who say their clients’ top campaign emphasis is audio more than doubled in the second quarter, according to a new survey conducted by media buying and selling software provider Strata. Nine percent of agencies surveyed said radio/streaming is their clients’ main advertising channel, up a staggering 102% from Q1. More than half of agencies surveyed (53%) said their clients have increased interest in advertising [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2015 on streaming/online radio compared to last year. Asked which media their customers are most interested in advertising on, spot radio came in fourth out of eight media, ahead of spot cable, network TV, out of home and print. Media mix came in overwhelmingly as the biggest challenge facing 40% of agencies, marking an 85% increase from the same time last year. Following media mix was client attraction (24% of agencies) and client spending (11%). Similarly, 22% of agencies expect their clients to make minor budget cuts from last year. The new Strata survey found programmatic buying steadily gaining agency confidence. While 46% of agencies report they are still unsure if they trust programmatic to execute their ad buys, 20% do trust programmatic, a 49% increase from last quarter, while only 11% say they do not trust it, a drop of 32%. Other key findings: 20% of agencies report they are likely to allocate between 11-25% of their ad budgets to paid social media, up 24% from the previous quarter; 39% expect their growth in the second half to be better than the first; and 52% say they expect their future growth to be the same as it was in the first half of the year. MMTC Uses Katrina Anniversary To Push For Multilingual EAS. Just days before the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) is putting pressure on the Federal Communications Commission to require radio and television stations to air multilingual emergency alerts in key markets where sizeable populations are non- English speaking. Joined by 25 other national and regional civil rights and consumer organizations, MMTC says updating the Emergency Alert System to serve an increasingly diverse population “must be a priority.” The FCC has been studying the idea since MMTC filed the first “Katrina Petition” in September 2005. It proposed that the FCC adopt a “designated hitter” system that would designate which station(s) in each radio market would be responsible for providing multilingual emergency information if no other station in that language remained on the air during or in the wake of the emergency. FCC chair Tom Wheeler testified before a congressional hearing in March that he supports making EAS multilingual but the agency has yet to take any formal action. “When wireless towers went down during Katrina, broadcast stations survived, and because of this, station owners and operators should be proactive in updating their alerts to be multilingual,” said David Honig, MMTC’s president emeritus and the author of the 2005 petition. “It must be part of the evaluation of their fitness as license holders with the FCC and the American public.” It is estimated more than 25 million people living in the U.S. have limited English proficiency. Subaru Goes All In On HD Radio. Subaru has joined a growing group of automakers that are making HD Radio a standard feature across all of their vehicle lines. The move expands a longstanding partnership between the Japanese automaker and HD Radio developer iBiquity Digital. “We’ve worked closely with Subaru for a number of years and are excited to see them take this important step to bring the latest in digital broadcast technology to all of their loyal customers,” Jeff Jury, COO of iBiquity, said in a news release. HD Radio-equipped cars are currently available at Subaru dealerships across the country. In expanding its deal with iBiquity, Subaru joins Bentley, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Mini, Rolls Royce, Scion, Tesla and Volvo among automakers and auto brands that have made HD Radio receivers standard across all of their vehicles. All major auto manufacturers now incorporate HD Radio receivers across more than 200 models of vehicles, according to iBiquity. Live From Zürich on HD Radio. Pride Radio, iHeartRadio’s LGBT-themed radio station, is helping boost awareness of HD Radio multicast channels – in the U.S. and in Europe. Heard on HD side channels in 15 cities, the station will broadcast live from the International Radio Festival in Zürich, Switzerland. Pride Radio 2pm-6pm personality Houston will host a live broadcast about LGBT life in Zurich, its popular music scene, LGBT-friendly tourism tips and his experiences with radio broadcasters from around the world on Friday from 2pm-6pm Eastern and Saturday from noon-6pm Eastern. The show will simulcast across a network of HD2 channels in over 15 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and through the Pride Radio stream on iHeartRadio. Positioned as “the pulse of gay America,” Pride Radio first launched on iHeart’s streaming app in 2013 before spreading to broadcast radio this June on an HD-fed FM translator in Minneapolis. It plays dance remixes and pop hits from Sam Smith, Katy Perry, Zedd, Nick Jonas, Rihanna and other acts. The station includes personalities and LGBT community news, along with a handful of music and entertainment shows. Joe D’Angelo, SVP, iBiquity [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2015 Digital, said the live broadcast “provides an excellent opportunity to showcase the unique programming found on HD2 and HD3 channels across the country during this important event for the radio industry.” Edison Dissects Radio vs. Streaming by Generations. For all the hype about streaming music services, a new Edison Research analysis shows broadcast radio still commands a larger share of listening — even with younger consumers.