Intelligence Briefs

Thomas Sydnor, a Visiting Fellow with AEI’s Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy, thinks so. In this Media Information Bureau column that's a must-read for every C-Suite executive in the radio industry, Sydnor believes such legislation is in the "legal, national, and economic interests of the U.S."

At the 2017 NAB Show, NextRadio will make some big announcements. This is likely to include news that the App that brings live and local radio is getting a new streaming audio version for iOS-powered devices. This couldn't be more important, based on the latest smartphone OS data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Why? The Android OS is very uncool with U.S. mobile phone users — especially teens.

Broadcast media is at a crossroads. Consumers are swarming to new opportunities that maximize content and minimize advertising. While ad buying and selling remain a vital part of the radio industry's lifeblood, quick decisions must be made in order to maintain success for advertisers and broadcasters alike. Drew Hilles believes he has a solution.

In early 2011, this D.C. Communications lawyer warned broadcasters that the FCC was not the only Washington regulatory agency that had to be on their radar. At the time, he was talking about the Federal Trade Commission. Given the widespread, now critically important use of social media, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the EEOC) has emerged as another agency one must have on their radar, at all times. We revisit this lawyer's words, as they continue to resonate with the media industry's C-Suite.

Understanding how Gen Z is disrupting television viewing habits is crucial to the success of networks, cable, streaming services and online video hubs. New York-based market researcher Robin Hafitz dissects this increasingly important consumer segment's consumption habits in this exclusive Media Information Bureau column for RBR + TVBR.

During the upcoming 2017 NAB Show in Las Vegas, broadcasters will be focused on a number of strategic, technological and competitive challenges and roadblocks to growing their businesses. As Accenture Global Managing Director/Broadcast Gavin Mann sees it, one of the biggest challenges is the need to make broadcast services more resilient to cyberattacks. There are other key challenges for broadcasters, which he discusses in this Media Information Bureau column.

The hottest social media platform for the youngest members of "GenZ" and so-called "Centennials" is developing a tool designed to tell marketers if their advertising efforts designed to drive traffic to specific stores actually bring in these consumers. It sounds like something the radio industry has championed for years. Is Snap trying to take business away from radio, or emulate an "original" social media platform? We have our thoughts on the matter.

According to new research from Parks Associates, some 55% of U.S. broadband households find it appealing to control entertainment and smart home devices through voice commands. Hey, Alexa ... Do you have an FM chip to activate?

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai placed a stake in the ground on Wednesday (4/5), committing himself to fix the lack of economics at the agency. Speaking at the Hudson Institute, Pai announced that he is forming the Office of Economics and Data (OED) at the FCC. In the eyes of Mark Jamison, this is a good first step.

Attendees at the recent ARF Annual Conference in New York got a first-hand look at the latest findings from the Council for Research Excellence (CRE)'s two-pronged study designed to better understand how consumers view TV programming and advertising in a multi-platform world. We've got full details of what CRE found in the in-home phase of the study, "The Mind Of The Viewer."

It's time to talk about "Generation Z," and the youngest of this group, RBR+TVBR's Editor-In-Chief writes in this Intelligence Brief. "It may be scary to fathom this, but we're talking about teens born after 2000," he notes. But, what's possibly scarier is why the media industry C-Suite shouldn't ignore this cohort, based on the latest Think With Google report.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing a joint resolution disapproving of the Wheeler-era FCC privacy rules. The debate prompted "an unusual amount of sturm-und-drang in the blogosphere," says a Boston College Law School associate professor and AEI Visiting Scholar in this Intelligence Brief.

The latest "detrimental distraction" for consumers -- and advertisers -- of AM and FM radio stations, commonly known as Spotify, is strengthening its sales force and nearly set for a syncopated soulful strut into the offices of your advertisers. That's because it just bought a company best-known for a platform that brings Tinder-like swiping to visual ads. Should radio and TV C-Suiters be concerned?

Public relations and marketing agency Ketchum has expanded its audience insights offering with a body of shoppers that it has identified and named GenZennial. What is a "GenZennial"? Perhaps the better question is, "What does this mean for a media property that relies on this segment of consumers for ratings and revenue?"

"Steps are now being taken at the White House to deconstruct the administrative state by taking a sledgehammer to the federal bureaucracy." Those are the words from Garvey Schubert Barer Communications Group co-chair Erwin Krasnow, who opines in this exclusive Intelligence Brief that the White House has the power to produce great change at the FCC. The question, as he sees it, is how aggressive the Trump Administration can be.