Intelligence Briefs

While some may shed a tear over the final broadcasts of a handful of AM radio stations that are seeing their licenses surrendered to the FCC, our editor-in-chief believes there is a bigger, more fundamental question that needs to be asked. Did the Radio industry fail in not embracing DAB? Yes, and no, he argues, as such a move would have damaged the brokerage community and iHeartRadio.

The increased focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Corporate America is not going unnoticed among Black, Hispanic and other diverse audiences, a new Horowitz Research study shows. As such, to resonate with the multicultural, "brands need to step up," Horowitz advises. Does the concept of "brand" extend beyond the advertiser to the media outlets themselves?

Once again, our editor-in-chief found himself a passenger in a shared ride vehicle where the audio selection of choice didn't involve Spotify or Pandora, or SiriusXM. It once again sends the message that Radio needs a unified pitch to marketers to reinforce its importance — especially today, given the millions raised for charity by AM and FM listeners.

Recently, NBCU ad sales leader Laura Molen noticed a recurring theme – advertisers are working to adapt to new audience behaviors and questioning whether they should place the same premium on digital, social, and streaming video as they do on linear. "To answer this question, she writes, "we need to remember our most important partners—our viewers."

Real-time engagement is of increasing desire among U.S. consumers. People increasingly want RTE video or audio features in the apps they use. For example, buyers in a shopping app want to talk to sellers. Can broadcast radio or TV benefit from this growing desire for "RTE'? An Agora survey may have some very interesting takeaways.

A "deluge' of ads from expanded legalized sports betting and the return of midterm political ad spending in 2022 are expected to aid U.S. broadcasters’ rebound from the pandemic. That's the key conclusion from S&P Global Market Intelligence Senior Research Analyst Justin Nielson, who works in the Kagan arm. 

"As we reach the end of 2021, advertising growth is showing much faster expansion than previously anticipated, driven primarily by growth in the U.S., U.K. and China." That's the highly optimistic conclusion of groupM's Brian Wieser. But, where do television and audio advertising measure up? He's crunched the numbers and for audio industry players, the future isn't so bright.

How are radio and TV poised to perform in the next five years? WARC, the international marketing intelligence service, has some new intelligence on the subject.

At his talk at the Miami Book Fair in November, WJR-AM in Detroit air talent and respected author Mitch Albom served up valuable lessons about great presentations that caught "Zoom expert" and public relations veteran Rosemary Ravinal's attention. In her view, what Albom said provides key learning lessons on how to perfect the great presentation.

CIMM, in conjunction with Project X Institute's Jon Watts and Alan Wolk of TVREV, have announced the development of a "Guide to Converged TV Measurement Providers." Upon completion in early 2022, the guide seeks to provide a landscape of the entire Converged TV measurement ecosystem in the U.S, as well as a comparative analysis of the companies who are conducting converged TV audience measurement.

Should a network affiliate be held accountable for an apparent violation of the FCC's rules pertaining to Emergency Alert System tones, if the allegedly infringing action is solely based on network programming the affiliate is contractually obligated to run? The answer could be no, one noted Washington, D.C.-based communications attorney tells RBR+TVBR.

From Uber to Lyft, from retailer to sundry shop, traditional radio appears to be alive and well in Midtown Manhattan, let alone the rest of the Big Apple. This leads our Editor-in-Chief to exclaim, "Can someone please alert Madison Avenue that New York loves Radio?!"

Speaking at Forecast 2022 on Tuesday, Scott Schober of Cybersecurity Ventures and President/CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems soberly shared with attendees of the daylong conference that they will never stay ahead of the hackers. Building on that theme, cybersecurity company Surfshark has new facts that sound new alarms when it comes to online security. They start with e-mail address protection.

Attention, broadcast TV station owners and managers: Streaming growth has stalled, and the fight for streamers is now to retain subscribers. That's the big takeaway from research released late last week by Kantar, which says this fight for retention will be heightened between now and the end of the year. Can broadcasters perhaps benefit from this, in particular with their digital multicast and/or OTT offerings?

Emmis Communications founder and CEO Jeff Smulyan has seen a lot in his career. Now, thanks to his teenage daughter, he's collected his thoughts, put pen to paper, and has written a book that is set for a 2022 release.