800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 Christmas format rode higher ratings wave in 2014. Santa spiked the holiday punch bowl with a little more ratings juice in 2014. The average Christmas station notched a 9.6 share in the 6+ demo in Nielsen’s Holiday 2014 survey, up a full share from 2013’s 8.6. The numbers reflect the 11 stations in non-embedded Day One PPM markets that went all-Christmas in 2014 and 2013. Of them, nine posted a higher 6+ share in 2014, two held steady and none declined. With the majority of PPM ratings not coming until later this week, it’s too early to know if the higher trend will hold up across all PPM markets. One likely reason for the bigger bump is that the 2014 survey, which covered December 4-31, reflected one more day of Christmas programming than in 2013. Some of the increases were dramatic, putting on ice, for now, the notion that the seasonal format has peaked. Holiday ratings for iHeartMedia AC “93.9 My FM” WLIT, Chicago were 24% higher than in 2013 (11.6-14.2). What’s more, the station nearly doubled its December share. WLIT wasn’t alone in posting double-digit, year-over-year holiday ratings gains: CBS Radio’s classic hits KLUV, Dallas (98.7) padded its share by 22% (7.2-8.8) while Entercom AC KOIT, San Francisco (96.5) grew 8.9-10.6, a 19% gain over 2013. From New York to Los Angeles, the tinsel shone brighter in 2014. Year-over year, New York’s “106.7 Lite FM” WLTW grew 13% (11.9-13.5) while L.A.’s KOST (103.5) jumped 17% (10.4-12.2) Both are iHeartMedia ACs. If there’s a plateau for the format, it’s miles above sea level: Jerry Lee’s AC “More FM’ WBEB, Philadelphia (101.1) posted a 15.1 share both years – beating the entire Christmas station pack so far. In Atlanta, full-time Christmas beats part-time. After it took too long to bring back core listeners for its regular programming, Cox Media Group AC “B-98.5” WSB-FM, Atlanta offered a best-of-both-worlds part-time Christmas format during the past two holiday seasons. Filling the void, Salem contemporary Christian “The Fish” WFSH-FM (104.7) grabbed the holiday format by the horns in 2014, riding it to a first-place tie with CBS Radio urban “V-103” WVEE. “The Fish” hooked a 7.6 share in Nielsen’s new Holiday survey, up from a 5.4 in December. WFSH isn’t the only non-AC, all-Christmas station that hit the ratings pole position in 2014. CBS Radio’s classic hits KLUV Dallas (98.7) topped the market with an 8.8, its second year at No. 1 during the Holiday survey. KLUV eclipsed cluster mate’s KVIL’s final year in the Christmas format, before it segued from AC to hot AC. Christmas also captured the No. 3 position in Dallas, where Salem contemporary Christian KLTY (94.9) went 4.4-5.5. The format finished first and second in Philadelphia. With a 6.1, CBS Radio’s classic hits WOGL (98.1) was second only to AC “More FM” WBEB (101.1). What’s hot – or not – in radio ad trends for 2015. The picture is clear: cable and other pay television services are expected to boost their radio spending in 2015. Borrell Associates forecasts the category will be up 10.3% this year for radio – an additional $4 million. “That is a bona fide hot category,” firm president Gordon Borrell said last week during an Inside Radio webinar. “They are in steep competition with Netflix and other services and they do find radio and digital as a very viable means of advertising.” Borrell also forecasts big box retailers to spend 2.9% more on radio in 2015, which if accurate will bring an additional $131 million to the industry’s bottom line. Health care is also projected to be up 4%. “The [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 drive toward video is really affecting this category with a lot of dollars being taken out of television and being moved into video – that’s a great opportunity for radio clusters that have video on their site,” Borrell said. The firm forecasts telecom (+2.5%), restaurants (+6.4%), grocery stores (+1.9%) and financial services (+4.9%) will also show growth this year. On the downside, the forecast predicts down categories for radio will include insurance (-0.9%), credit and mortgage services (-4.9%), travel (-1.1%), and furniture stores (-0.6%). What about radio’s intake of auto advertising? Car manufacturers are increasingly pressuring their local dealers to spend more on digital advertising. Ford even requires half of all co-op dollars be allocated to digital. Even so, Borrell Associates forecasts the auto category will grow 5.2% for radio in 2015. “Auto dealers are bullish on radio and we see that buoying radio in the near term,” Gordon Borrell said. He pointed to a growing sentiment that radio may be the cheaper broadcast alternative when driving car buyers to the digital lead distribution channels that car companies have spent millions to build. “Advertisers need some level of mix and radio is inexpensive, it serves similar needs, and it drives digital traffic which is everybody’s goal,” Borrell said. Miss the webinar? We’ve posted the entire presentation at InsideRadio.com. Survey shows teens migrating to audio streaming. While AM/FM radio remains the dominant form of audio entertainment among all Americans, new research finds teens spend eleven minutes more per day with pureplay streaming audio services than with broadcast radio and the online streams of AM/FM stations. The finding is from Share of Ear, a twice-yearly tracking study from Edison Research first released in May 2014 and updated with new data collected in fall 2014. The survey is intended to show how Americans divide their audio time among AM/FM radio, streaming audio, owned music, podcasts, satellite radio, cable radio channels and other sources. Edison reports Americans aged 13-17 spend 64 minutes a day with streaming audio, compared to 53 minutes with broadcast radio and its online streams. The new finding marks the first time Edison has publicly released Share of Ear results for teens, a demo under-served by radio that’s grown up surrounded by digital entertainment. For the May 2014 study, Edison released data for the 13+, 18-24, 18-49 and 25-54 demos, all of which showed longer TSL for radio than any other audio source. “While AM/FM radio listening leads by a significant margin among all other age groups, much of teens’ listening time has shifted to pureplay internet audio services like Pandora and Spotify and others,” Edison president Larry Rosin said in a statement. “This could be a lens into the future of audio usage.” The nationally representative study included 2,021 respondents aged 13+ who completed a 24-hour diary of their audio listening on an assigned day. Diaries were completed online (November 4-15) and by mail using a paper diary (October 14-20) in both English and Spanish. 40% by 2014? By some measure Townsquare hits its target. For the past several years Townsquare Media has put managers and sales reps on a mission to generate 40% of company revenue from digital and other off-air revenue by the end of 2014. While overall the company fell short by roughly 10%, a deeper look shows it actually surpassed the goal among stations that it owned when that target was first circled. Townsquare tells investors preliminary data shows 42% of company revenue last year came from non-spot revenue in those markets. While digital gets a lot of the focus, live events have been ramping quickly. Townsquare held about 500 live events last year, a ten-fold increase over 2010. That’s nearly two events per station, per year, of which only 17% were music-focused. “We think there’s a lot of room to increase that over time,” EVP Alex Berkett said yesterday at the Noble Financial Group conference in Port St. Luice, FL. He said they’ll focus on growing attendance beyond the roughly 700,000 people who attended a Townsquare event last year. The company will also look at things such as raising ticket prices, selling more sponsorships and boosting concession sales. “You’ll see more of our growth in the live event segment come from better attendance and better monetization rather than growing the amount of events,” Berkett predicted. That doesn’t mean new events are off-limits. In June the company will hold the inaugural Loudwire Music Festival in Grand Junction, CO. [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 Townsquare Media delivers upbeat Q4 report. The news for Townsquare Media is good: its pro forma revenue increased 9% during the final three months of the year. But the company also delivered what is the latest upbeat message about how the business environment looked at the end of 2014 and early weeks of 2015. Radio One and Emmis Communications have also said in recent weeks they’ve seen the pace quicken. Even more noteworthy, the start of the year is typically the slowest time for ad sales. Townsquare Media’s preliminary data shows its 2014 pro forma revenue increased 8% to $385 million.