Interesting idea from regional newspapers in the US. They're now doing online radio. From small local, regional press titles to larger ones such as The Boston Herald.
What they're doing is taking the printed stories and reading them on-air via Internet broadcasts. In Ireland, you need a licence to broadcast (ridiculously) granted by The State (so more State control of Media) whereas one wonders about online radio? Can it be controlled in the same way?
But US regional press have the content and have the journalists, with online broadcasting being inexpensive.
What they do then is "bundle" their advertising between print and radio with on-air advertising. So it either protects existing ad revenues or grows them (upsell by throwing in some radio spots) and gives regional press new digital assets to sell to advertisers at low cost.
It's a clever way of using the content they've already collected. Indeed, just a small step up from podcasting. Radio too, has always been about local content and of course, online radio is growing. But having a print title also allows you the "mouthpiece" to generate listeners through cross-promotion.
One clear factor as cars become more connected (like the new Suzuki Vitara is), access to digital radio via smartphones is easy now. Mac Play allows you to do that for free by downloading an App.
And in-car is a clear prime radio market.
Online broadcasting is cheap - you need a microphone and a laptop essentially to start - and regional content is not expected to have all the broadcasting bells and whistles.
Nice idea.
Interesting data from Cable Company Time Warner (CNN, TNT, Cartoon Network, TBS) in the US for Q4 2014 just out, giving it a not too optimistic view for 2015.
They're really suffering from the decline in traditional TV viewing as viewers switch to other devices and how that's starting to affect advertising spends.
Netflix, Amazon, Hulu are starting to make inroads both into audiences and therefore, into Ad dollars.
Time Warner Revenues were down in the last quarter meaning an uplift of only +3% for the year. But it's revenue is 27.4 Billion usd so that's still very strong. Operating profit was down nearly -6% on the year.
21st Century Fox has also reduced advertising expectations because of the slow advertising TV market and Nielsen reported live TV viewing down nearly 13% and Ad spends are down reflecting that.
Time Warner are now focused on bundling more their digital assets with traditional TV buys and have recognised the shift.
It's the first full and clear indication that TV audiences decline and as they do, so will advertising income. Nothing surer.
Advertising money chases audiences as sure as night follows day. And when audiences shift, so too will advertising spends - just surprising that it has taken so long.
All the talk of Jon Stewart leaving The Daily Show after 17 years on Comedy Central with a focus on his salary of 25/30 million usd a year....nice piece on Business Insider about that salary too.
Jimmy Kimmel on ABC gets about 10 million. Shepard Smith on Fox gets about the same as does Jimmy Fallon. Conan O'Brien gets about 12 million on TBS and poor Brian Williams was getting about 13 million for NBC Nightly News.
Howard Stern gets 15 million and Bill O'Reilly who has the most watched cable show, 'The O'Reilly Factor' on Fox gets about 18 million.
Ellen De Generes and David Letterman get about 20 million but top of them all....with a pretty staggering 47 million Dollars....and the highest paid TV celeb....with the most watched syndicated show (10 million viewers)....bringing in circa 250 million in advertising is....Judge Judy.
Streamabout filmed her in Dublin 2013 and actually what you see, is what you get. Clever lady.
