Industry News

The next time someone tells you that radio is just background noise for most people, point them to this study.

Cumulus Media is calling attention to a report that explores consumer attentiveness and ad skipping tendencies.

The company says the report demonstrates that AM/FM radio leads all media in advertising attentiveness, with the lowest levels of ad skipping.

It also found that consumers devote very high levels of concentration to podcasts “since listeners actively seek them out to learn something new, which justifies premium CPMs for podcasts.”

The report is from Cumulus Media/Westwood One’s Audio Active Group.

Cumulus summarized key findings:

“Attention grows in importance among marketers and agencies,” it wrote. “Nearly half of advertisers have discussed consumer attentiveness as a metric. Two out of three say it is important for measuring media investments.”

Also, traditional media ads have greater engagement compared to digital ads. “AM/FM radio, print, and podcast ads lead in attentiveness. Consumers skip social and digital ads the most.”

Further, it said, agencies and marketers tend to “overestimate consumer concentration of social media. Two consumer studies reveal social media has the lowest attentiveness of media platforms.”

AM/FM radio CPMs should be a premium to Pandora and Spotify, Cumulus said. “Pandora/Spotify audio impressions are not the same as AM/FM radio impressions. The greater proportion of spoken word content on AM/FM radio generates much higher levels of concentration and attentiveness. The information and personalities of AM/FM radio satisfy consumer need states for information and connection.”

Also, “Audio platforms satisfy unique need states. AM/FM radio is associated with information, connection, and entertainment. Podcasts are a source of information, learning, and entertainment. Music streaming entertains, relaxes, and lifts moods.”

The Media Attentiveness and Ad Skipping Report is aimed at marketers, agency media planners and buyers.

The post Radio Leads in Advertising Attentiveness, Study Finds appeared first on Radio World.

For investors seeking some good news from the nation’s dominant provider of audience measurement and data analytics information, perhaps the just-released Q4 2021 financial results will provide that.

Nielsen’s Q4 2021 Earnings Per Share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 27.8%.

Unfortunately, Nielsen’s revenue in the quarter fell short of Wall Street analysts’ forecasts. And, NLSN slipped in Monday’s trading.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

FMR Associates, an international media research firm that specializes in strategic marketing studies and has extensive experience in radio, has signed exclusively with G Accelerate for radio affiliation and ad sales in the U.S. 

The deal makes FMR’s research services available to radio stations for the first time on a barter basis. The announcement was made by Jim Higgins, President and Chief Executive Officer of G Accelerate Networks, and radio veteran Kent Phillips, Managing Partner of FMR Associates.

“In today’s data-driven marketplace, it’s imperative that radio stations fully understand their audience’s evolving tastes,” Higgins said. “Speculating on what listeners want doesn’t cut it anymore.  Kent is well-known and respected across the radio industry. At FMR, Kent is leading a team of experts in both research and radio to deliver the listener facts and insights that stations need to compete, stay ahead of new trends, and win ratings.”

FMR’s research services include:

• Perceptual Research Services
  • Perceptual/Tracking Studies
  • Vulnerability Analysis
  • Local Radio Analysis (LRA)
  • Format Opportunity Analysis
  • Advertiser Perception Studies
• Music Library Testing
• MusicTrac Call-Out Research

“When Jim launched G Accelerate, I knew he was the right partner to lead FMR into barter deals with radio stations,” Phillips said. “While cash arrangements are always an option for new and existing affiliates, with G Accelerate we are now able to extend our research services to stations that find a barter deal works better for them. There just isn’t anyone else I would trust to do this with.”

Higgins added, “We’re delighted to partner with FMR and offer their exceptional research services on a barter basis to radio stations across the country. The robust data from FMR’s research goes deep to gauge listener satisfaction and identify market opportunities with rigorously tested, comprehensive surveys that are customized to fit a radio station’s specific research objectives.”

FMR’s Perceptual Research Studies assess media usage patterns, preferences, awareness and/or imaging, and include tracking studies to measure over time. All FMR Reports include an analysis of key demographic and ‘behavographic’ variables.

It’s the winning bidder for a FM construction permit in Clayton, Okla., a town of less than 1,000 inhabitants in the heart of Choctaw Nation.

As a winning bidder, the new licensee-to-be was required to file a post-auction FCC Form 2100, Schedule 301 long-form application by September 13, 2021.

Oops. This future Oklahoma operator missed the deadline.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Cumulus Media is getting a tongue-lashing from the Federal Communications Commission.

The company faces a $32,000 penalty in a case in Georgia that involves EEO rules. But to explain why it chose to raise what might have been a smaller fine, the FCC criticized Cumulus more broadly about its habits in following commission rules.

In the notice of apparent liability, it pointed to past EEO rules cases in 2008 and 2017. But the commission then went on to talk about the company’s “prior history of non-EEO rule violations” and it posted a footnote that listed a string of Cumulus FCC cases over the past 19 years involving political files, public inspection files, broadcasting phone conversations, tower fencing, antenna painting and false certification in a renewal application.

“Indeed, the commission recently sanctioned Cumulus for its repeated violations of the commission’s sponsorship identification rules,” the commission wrote in the notice of apparently liability. “In that forfeiture order, the commission emphasized that repeated violations of the commission’s rules warranted upward adjustment — even if the prior violations do not relate to the type of violations at issue in the current matter.”

The commission didn’t stop there:

“While Cumulus’ history of repeatedly violating the commission’s rules would be problematic under any circumstances, its apparent disregard of the commission’s EEO rules is particularly troubling. Cumulus, in its own words, is ‘an audio-first media company delivering premium content to over a quarter billion people every month…’ Cumulus owns and operates several hundred radio stations in dozens of markets across the nation. In short, it is a highly sophisticated broadcaster with extensive operations that employs thousands of people and routinely fills scores of job openings annually. The commission’s EEO rules ensure that broadcasters take concrete and thoughtful steps to seek and attract diverse employees.  Repeated disregard of these rules by a broadcaster of Cumulus’ size and scope is contrary to the public interest.”

Radio World invited comment from Cumulus and will report any response.

In the case at hand, the FCC found that Cumulus Licensing LLC apparently violated the equal employment opportunity rules in regards to five of its former stations in Georgia: WEGC(FM) Sasser: WJAD(FM) Leesburg; and WKAK(FM), WQVE(FM) and WALG(AM), all in Albany. (The stations subsequently were sold to First Media Services, according to news reports.)

The commission said the company failed to upload its annual EEO public file report in the online public inspection files, failed to upload its annual report to the stations’ websites and failed to analyze its EEO program.

This came to light in the stations’ license renewal applications. According to the FCC, Cumulus indicated that it had not uploaded the EEO files  when required. When the Enforcement Bureau wrote asking why, Cumulus told it that the 2018 annual report had not been added to the public inspection files and websites until more than nine months after the deadline, because its business manager had “simply overlooked this requirement.” It blamed a routine administrative change and the loss of a former employee who had helped with this task in the past.

The commission said those facts don’t mitigate the violation.

The rules set a base forfeiture of $10,000 for each public file violation but the FCC has discretion to change the penalty. Here, the commission cited “Cumulus’ prior history of rule violations, including violations of the EEO rules,” as well as the longer list of past incidents mentioned above.

Cumulus argued that the forfeiture penalty should be decreased because its parent emerged from bankruptcy in 2018 and because the pandemic had hurt its ad revenue; but the commission rejected those arguments, quoting statements on the Cumulus website that the company had reduced its debt and increased its cash since emerging from bankruptcy.

The company has 30 days to pay the fine in the specific case or to reply seeking a different outcome.

 

The post FCC Has Harsh Words for Cumulus appeared first on Radio World.

Starting today, clients of NBCUniversal will be able to run “non-intrusive, in-game” advertising across cross-platform gaming inventory from a company operating across mobile, PC and console platforms.

It comes with “high standards of privacy and brand safety,” courtesy of NBCUniversal’s One Platform. More importantly, it sends the message that going beyond the spot matters for advertisers and consumers alike.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Edison Research’s second look at South Africa through its Infinite Dial methodology finds online audio use has exploded over the past four years.

In the 2019 Infinite Dial South Africa report, 39% of respondents 15+ in major metro areas reported using online audio. In the 2022 report, that number increased to 61% of respondents.

Weekly radio listening held steady from 2019 to 2022 with 69% of respondents reporting having listened to the radio in the past week, up one percentage point from 68% in 2019. Ninety-four percent of respondents reported having at least one radio in their home, although 64% of respondents said they used a mobile phone, computer or television for in-home radio listening too, which was a significant (44%) increase from 2019.

Comparison of 2019 to 2022 reported radio listening in the past week among those 15+ (Edison Research)

In terms of in-car listening, 80% of respondents 18+ reported having tuned to AM/FM radio while driving or as a passenger within the past month.

Ninety percent of respondents 15+ reported owning a smartphone in 2022, and 32% said they owned a smart speaker. More than a third (36%) of people in 2022 reported having ever downloaded an AM/FM radio station’s smartphone app.

Podcasting also saw substantial gains with 26% of respondents 15+ listening to podcasts at least monthly in 2022 compared to 10% in 2019. Fourth-eight percent of respondents said they were aware of podcasts even if they didn’t listen to them.

Podcast listeners were slightly more likely to be male than female (53% to 47%) and aged 15–34 (51%), compared to 35–54 (38%) or 55+ (11%). Of the 20% of people who reported listening to podcasts weekly, they listened to four episodes on average each week.

Comparison of radio ownership in South Africa and the U.S. (Edison Research)

When it comes to streaming audio services, YouTube Music had the greatest brand awareness with 69% of those 15+ being aware of the service. Spotify followed at 36% and Joox, an Asia-based streamer that launched in South Africa in 2017, at 27%.

The Infinite Dial 2022 South Africa survey was conducted by Edison Research in November/December 2021 with in-person interviews of 1,500 people living in eight major metropolitan municipalities in South Africa: Nelson Mandela Bay, Mangaung, Johannesburg, eThekwini, Cape Town, Buffalo City, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni. The data was weighted to reflect the gender, age, and race of the population. No margin of error was reported.

The National Association of Broadcasters South Africa commissioned the survey, which was sponsored by Triton Digital, and produced in association with The Broadcast Research Council of South Africa.

Larry Rosin, President of Edison Research, shared findings from the study in an online presentation today. Rosin added, “The increase in online audio consumption and podcast listening among those we surveyed in South Africa points to a space that can accommodate many audio platforms while radio stays strong. We hope this data that shows robust growth in audio consumption motivates advertisers to consider all of these various audiences.”

The post Radio Holds Steady in Infinite Dial 2022 South Africa appeared first on Radio World.

The ability for a radio to toggle between an audio stream and over-the-air broadcast is coming to vehicles manufactured by a big German automaker.

And, the rollout includes the North American marketplace.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

In April 2021, RBR+TVBR first reported on the sale of WNUE-FM 98.1 by Entravision Communications — a move that would begin a wind-down of Orlando DMA operations for the multimedia company superserving Hispanic consumers in the U.S.

Now, the individual who most recently served as SVP/GM for Entravision/Orlando — a 2021 Medallas de Cortez finalist — has joined the broadcast television company that will soon be led by Soohyung Kim.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

In light of Russia’s attack on the Ukraine, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed action to help protect America’s communications networks guard against cyberattacks. Earlier in the week, the Department of Homeland Security warned U.S. organizations at all levels that they could face cyber threats stemming from the Russia–Ukraine conflict; the FCC said Rosenworcel’s proposal would begin an inquiry into the vulnerabilities of the internet’s global routing system.

If adopted by a vote of the full commission, the Notice of Inquiry would seek public comment on vulnerabilities threatening the security and integrity of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which the FCC says is central to the internet’s global routing system. The inquiry would also examine the impact these vulnerabilities would have on the transmission of data through email, e-commerce, bank transactions, interconnected voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP), and 911 calls — and how best to address these challenges.

BGP is the routing protocol used to exchange reachability information among independently managed networks on the Internet. BGP’s initial design, which remains widely deployed today, does not include explicit security features to ensure trust in this exchanged information.

As a result, the FCC said, a bad network actor may deliberately falsify BGP reachability information to redirect traffic. Russian network operators have been suspected of exploiting BGP’s vulnerability to hijacking in the past. “BGP hijacks” can expose Americans’ personal information, enable theft, extortion, and state-level espionage, and disrupt otherwise-secure transactions.

Working with its federal partners, the commission has urged the communications sector to defend against cyber threats, while also taking measures to reinforce the nation’s readiness and to strengthen the cybersecurity of vital communications services and infrastructure, especially in light of Russia’s actions inside of Ukraine.

Rosenworcel also recently shared with her colleagues a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would begin the process of strengthening the commission’s rules for notifying customers and federal law enforcement of breaches of customer proprietary network information (CPNI). The inquiry under consideration would build on those efforts, the FCC said.

The post FCC Takes Steps to Protect Against Cyberattacks From Russia and its Agents appeared first on Radio World.