Radio needs to innovate.
So says CBS Radio President Andre Fernandez.
“When I look at the streaming services and a lot of digital development, I’m actually surprised sometimes that more hasn’t been done or developed” by broadcast radio, he tells Billboard.
Companies need to have the courage to invest more in R&D — and if they do, that will help ensure their future, he says.
Fernandez, on the job for 10 months, predicts eventually, maybe this year, we’ll see either a merger or an acquisition between a streaming Internet radio company and an over-the-air broadcaster.
RBR+TVBR observation: Others (from the podcast and pureplay world) have made this prediction as well, but not a traditional radio broadcaster, that I can recall. Perhaps a step in this direction comes as advice from Nielsen, saying that while radio garners 93% of all listening on a weekly basis, “more than they engage with TV or smartphones,” streaming is experiencing tremendous growth. Total on-demand music streams increased more than 92% in 2015 compared to 2014, Nielsen says in a new blog.
“So how can this help radio? In short, on-demand streaming tells us which music appeals to people. When music listeners purchase or download a song, we don’t know how many times they listen to it — if at all,” says Nielsen. “With streaming, we know each time a play is initiated, day after day, week after week. The data is not from a sample, a listening room or a panel. It’s an un-aided, authentic look at the songs listeners are choosing.”
Streaming and radio can help each other, according to the audience research firm. To be clear, Nielsen isn’t talking M&A, but says streaming trends can help radio programmers manage playlists.
Tapping in to on-demand streaming data can also give programmers a sense of how they’re doing with respect to playing songs that aren’t new, but still have massive appeal, according to the company. For example, Coldplay fans streamed “The Scientist” 928,597 times, yet the song was ranked No. 1,603 in terms of radio airplay. Comparatively, the band’s “Clocks” ranked No. 160 in terms of airplay but had only been streamed 567,312 times, highlighting about one-third less listener demand.
