Week of August 27, 2007

New iPods Radio-Enabled?

Friday, August 31, 2007

The new iPod line up and unveiling is scheduled for Wednesday, September 5, but that hasn't stopped people from speculating. A number of places have stated that the new iPods will have wireless capability, and at least one source has stated that the iPods will be able to receive "digital radio" with the ability to purchase songs heard there on the fly. We doubt this means HD Radio is coming to the iPod. In fact we doubt this means any connection to terrestrial radio at all. The most likely meaning is that Apple will broadcast digital radio streams itself as free content for iPod owners, and then allow the iPod users to purchase songs they like.

That said, there was precious little guidance as to what it DID mean. I guess we'll just have to wait until the announcement.

Cell Phone As Credit Card

Thursday, August 30, 2007

It's long been considered the future, but with rumors of a Google phone and a recent patent application involving payment processing via a cell phone, it appears that the future is coming soon from Google. The tech blog Techcrunch (www.techcrunch.com) outlines how Google could be setting up a cell phone-based payment system, which could be used with everything from vending machines to retailers. It is, of course, called GPay, and the real questions is will we see an integrated GPay with a GPhone?

Internet advertising to surpass radio

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

According to Forbes magazine, online ad spending is expected surpass radio for this year by more than a billion dollars. The real story is not the simple fact that online advertising will surge ahead of ad spending on radio. Rather, it's the sluggish growth of radio advertising, expected to be about 1% this year. This points to the clear need for radio to embrace its own online potential. Radio has made NTR growth a major part of its financial strategy, but few stations or clusters have fully exploited the opportunity for growth in online advertising on station web sites.

This means more than simply selling the eyeballs that are already there. In many cases, radio has even greater potential to do more with its sites, leading to more interactivity, more engagement with its audience, inevitably leading to greater stickiness, more page views and greater revenue. To do this, radio needs to do 2 fundamental things: 1) embrace the web 2.0 concept and build interactive and engaging sites and 2) realize the need for separate web sales forces to maximize the revenue potential now and into the future.

¡Ándale Nielsen!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Nielsen has just announced a significant change in the way it reports national TV ratings. For the first time in 15 years, Spanish language and English language results will be reported together. In 1992, following complaints by Spanish language media, Nielsen began keeping separate results for both. The idea was that the sample size of Hispanic households was too small, so separate samples - and results - would give Spanish language broadcasters a more accurate count.

Reverting back to one report reflects the growing importance of Hispanic media and the number of Spanish language media options, as well as the increased Hispanic population. The thinking is that there's no need for a separate report and, in fact, that Spanish language media is getting short changed by having separate results.

The jury is out on what the change will mean. Putting Spanish language results in context will, on the one hand, reinforce the power of this market, but on a national scale, it's not likely that Spanish language networks will overtake the English language networks in prime time. Still, the betting is that this will help the Spanish language media with its already impressive revenue gains.

MySpace Also Heads Into the Future

Monday, August 27, 2007

Last week we pointed out the important moves that Facebook was making at targeting its advertising. This week the New York Times reports that MySpace hasn't been as passive as previously thought. In fact, they have already done some internal testing on behavioral advertising:

"MySpace already has begun inviting a few of its advertisers to target 10 groups of users, said Michael Barrett, chief revenue officer for Fox Interactive. In an internal test that tried to reach users interested in fashion, such targeting increased the response rate by 85%, Barrett said."