Intelligence Briefs

According to a study conducted over a three-day period in May, more than half of U.S. pay television subscribers did not see having live sports channels as an important consideration. That's according to a study that seems dubious, biased and just one more example of how ridiculous "facts" are being masqueraded as research, our Editor-In-Chief notes in this Media Information Bureau report.

Nearly half of all consumers indicate they would rethink purchasing from brands or would boycott products if they encountered brand ads alongside digital content that offends them. That's the key takeaway from a new CMO Council study, aptly titled “How Brands Annoy Fans.” It's also more fuel to the fire of broadcast radio and TV C-Suiters in their fight to win back clients who were dazzled by digital but are now perhaps paying the price for trashing good 'ol traditional media.

While evidence exists in support of the benefit of contextually relevant advertising in aggregate, its benefits on return on ad spend (ROAS) for digital campaigns and unaided ad recall for TV ads is uncertain. Those are the findings of original research presented today by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) at its 2017 Audience Measurement forum, “Modern Measurement: Media, Models & Methods.” Is that good news for broadcast media?

The period between the execution of a purchase agreement for the sale of a radio or TV station and the transaction's closing may be viewed by many as a broadcaster’s vision of purgatory. To ensure a smooth transition, the seller needs to know how—and when—to communicate the sale to employees, advertisers and vendors. In this column from Erwin Krasnow and Doug Ferber, the broadcast media C-Suite is guided through the intricate process of communicating the decision to sell the station. Be sure to jot down their suggestions on engaging in the most effective communication to staff, once that Form 314 is filed with the FCC.

RBR+TVBR featured columnist Ken Benner returns to the fold with his views on what's truly killing media. It's not "fake news." It might just be, in his opinion, hefty fines and fees courtesy of the Federal government.

In late April, the Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones — Mexico's equivalent of the FCC — said sí to new regulations that require all smartphone manufacturers to enable the chip that allows every headset to receive FM radio signals. This makes the nation the first on planet Earth to require everyone from Samsung to Apple to bring local FM signals to one's mobile device. Will the USA be the last nation to take such action?

The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has released a white paper aimed at helping broadcasters transition to IP with minimal disruption. The paper, titled "AIMS Guidelines to Preparing Broadcast Facilities for IP-Based Live TV Production," presents basic methods broadcasters can follow to make the shift from SDI to IP as trouble-free as possible.

No matter the size of the media company, one universal truth of sales failure is lack of formal accountability within the sales team. When this Media Information Bureau columnist mentions the word, managers get red and sales people get fire in their eyes. But why? We wait too long, he says.

There's a lot of negative press about the President of the United States. In the view of Roslyn Layton, a Visiting Fellow at AEI's Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy, many tech media conform to this trend. Why? In her view, recent news stories on the FCC have been characterized by a focus on drama over analysis.

Have U.S. consumers become a bit less materialistic than they've been in recent years? New research from GfK suggests that's the case. What can a radio station glean from this study, in particular with its contests and giveaways designed to lure and keep listeners?

The recently concluded FCC spectrum auction "of a big chunk of old broadcast TV airwaves" was supposed to make the big mobile firms bigger and reduce competition in broadband. In the eyes of AEI Visiting Fellow Bret Swanson, that's the assessment of "activists and a few self-interested parties." As he writes, the "alarmist theory" that went into the auction didn't pan out.

According to a study of close to 5,700 respondents across all Nielsen Audio PPM markets, nearly 60% of likely PPM panelists listen to radio at work. It's far more than the number of those who predict they wouldn't participate in a Nielsen Audio survey, NuVoodoo Media Services finds.

"Eventually, asking our voice assistant to track down a fact or order more cat food will become a normal, everyday interaction – the same as asking it to dim the lights." That's a conclusion from ReportLinker, which late last week released the findings of a May 4 online survey of 508 respondents. Will asking our Amazon Echo or Google Home device to tune to a specific radio station also become a "normal, everyday interaction"?

As a Futuresource Consulting analyst sees it, the smartphone will likely remain the most important personal electronics device for consumers for the foreseeable future. As technology progresses, however, we won't rely on or be limited to the smartphone forever. What could this mean for broadcast media's C-Suite?

Better and more transparent audience measurement is a demand advertisers are delivering to Facebook, which has a bug in its system. According to The Wall Street Journal, some clients are getting refunds after this bug led the social media giant to overstate clicks on marketers' websites when accessed via a mobile device. Facebook says it's a minor glitch. What do radio and TV executives have to say, and will they use the bug as part of their own "repellent plan"?