A Raleigh Media Leader Gains ‘Infotainment Insights’ With Wejo Pact

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It has been a NEXTGEN TV pioneer thanks to its efforts at its WRAL-5 and WRAZ-TV and is the owner of a group of AM and FM radio stations including “Mix 101.5” — all serving North Carolina’s Triangle region.


Now, Capitol Broadcasting Co. is partnering with a Manchester, England-based EV and autonomous vehicle data firm to pilot and introduce connected vehicle data-driven infotainment insights for radio listening measurement.

 

The agreement is with Wejo Group Limited, offering “Smart Mobility for Good” SaaS and software-based products to media.

As Capitol sees it, it could be a better way to gauge listening to its stations than the PPM, used by Nielsen Audio. “The infotainment insights include a more accurate way than traditional manual methods to measure in-vehicle radio listening audiences,” Wejo asserts.

Thus, Wejo believes radio stands ready to cash in on the “millions of dollars in revenue opportunity” that could transpire over the next three years, thanks to a total addressable market value of $1.8 billion.

As most radio listening happens in cars, Wejo’s partnership with Capitol Broadcasting is designed to show how leveraging connected vehicle data can result in a highly accurate, extensive but anonymous radio listener data set, including when and which radio stations were consumed and how long people listened.

In a swipe at Nielsen Audio, Wejo comments, “The new infotainment insights replace the traditional manual, time-consuming and error-prone methods, including surveys, forms and self-reporting tools from a small sample of participants that most radio broadcasting companies currently use.”

The U.S. Radio Broadcasting industry’s expected total revenue in 2022 is $23 billion, with over $345 billion in advertising expenditures, according to IBISWorld data. And, the Wejo partnership comes just days after it became known that Brad Kelly, the individual most associated with Nielsen Audio and Radio’s biggest audience measurement figure in the U.S., has exited Nielsen as part of a major restructuring and reduction-in-force initiative.

Brian Maloney, VP of Radio at Capitol Broadcasting Co., commented, “In-car listening is the backbone of the radio industry and gaining more accurate insights into our audience and market will help us better understand our listeners. Wejo’s data was very insightful and the first of its kind for our industry to see.”

Jon Accarrino, Capitol Broadcasting Company’s VP of Transformation & Strategic Initiatives, added, “One of the things that I really appreciated with Wejo was getting access to actual radio listener data. With this platform, we know how many car radios were listening to our radio stations in our DMA, when they were listening, and for how long. No estimates. No surveys. Just real data.”