Worldwide Digital Radio Growth

The worldwide digital radio market has been growing, as most of you know. But most of you probably don’t know which markets are growing at the fastest rates. Between 2007 and 2008 digital radio experienced growth of 85%, as reported by http://www.in-stat.com/, which is a tremendous increase in just one year. Asia/Pacific was the main reason for this large growth, with Korea actually being the main factor. After the strong growth in 2008, what should we expect for 2009? Of course there’s been studies suggesting exponential growth, but according to In-Stat:

“Moving into 2009, developed economies are significantly impacted by the economic turndown. However, developing parts of Asia/Pacific are still experiencing growth in digital radio shipments.” says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. “The reality of the math is that even modest adoption in heavily populous countries such as China and India drives a large impact in global shipments.”

In some recent studies done by In-Stat, they found that:

• Worldwide, the market for both satellite and terrestrial digital radio, combined, will grow to over 55 million unit shipments in 2012.
  
• Key suppliers of semiconductor digital radio integrated circuits (ICs) for this market include Frontier Silicon, NXP, ST Microelectronics and Texas Instruments.
  
• A variety of digital radio broadcast standards are being deployed, largely on a geographic basis. Among these include iBiquity’s IBOC technology, Eureka 147 (also referred to as digital audio broadcasting (DAB)), terrestrial integrated services digital broadcasting (ISDB-T), Satellite digital audio radio services (S-DARS), and Digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB).
  
• A large factor of digital radio growth is the increase in the HD radio market.

If you would like to read more, or purchase In-Stat’s study on Digital Radio Growth you can visit http://www.in-stat.com/ to purchase their most recent publications.

Online radio audience grows to 42 million!

Last week Arbitron Inc. and Edison Research released their latest study “The Infinite Dial 2009.” This study showed that the usage rate of digital audio platforms, suck as online radio, iPods, podcasting, etc., has significantly increased since 2008. Interestingly enough, weekly online radio audience has grown to roughly 42 million Americans, up from 33 million in 2008.

Here are some findings from The Infinite Dial 2009 study:

• “The weekly online radio audience increased significantly in the past year to 17 percent of the U.S. population age 12 and older; up from 13 percent in 2008. On a weekly basis, online radio reaches 20 percent of 25-to-54 year-olds; up from 15 percent in 2008.”
  
• “Online radio listeners are more likely to be upscale, well-educated and employed full time; 54 percent of weekly online radio listeners are employed full-time (compared to 43 percent among persons 12 and older); 16 percent of weekly online radio listeners live in homes with an annual income greater than $100,000 (vs. 10 percent among persons 12 and older); 37 percent of weekly online radio listeners have a college degree or higher education level (vs. 29 percent among persons 12 and older).”
  
• “Weekly online video viewing among persons age 12 and older is up significantly in the past year, from 18 percent (approximately 46 million) in 2008 to 27 percent (approximately 69 million) in 2009.”
  
• “iPod/portable MP3 player ownership continues to grow dramatically. More than four in ten (42 percent) persons age 12 and older own an iPod or other brand of portable MP3 player; up from 37 percent in 2008 and three times the number in 2005 (14 percent). Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of 18-to-24 year-olds own a digital audio player.”
  
• “While only 14 percent of persons age 12 and older say they are spending less time with over-the-air radio specifically due to time spent with iPods and other portable MP3 players, digital audio players have greater impact on radio among 12-to-24 year-olds. Thirty two percent of teens age 12-to-17 and persons 18-to-24 say they are spending less time with over-the-air radio specifically due to time spent with iPod/other portable MP3 players; this is nearly twice as many 18-to-24 year-olds who reported spending less time with over-the-air radio as 2008.”
  
• “Audio podcasting usage also continues to increase. Twenty-two percent of Americans age 12 and older have ever listened to an audio podcast; up from 18 percent in 2008. In 2009, 11 percent (estimated 27 million) reported having listened to an audio podcast in the past month (up from 9 percent, or an estimated 23 million, in 2008.)”
  

And in an interview with Arbitron’s Senior VP of Marketing, Bill Rose, he stated:

“The sharp growth in weekly usage of online radio in this year’s study provides compelling evidence that radio’s digital platforms may be reaching critical mass,” said Bill Rose, senior vice president of marketing, Arbitron Inc. “The growth of online radio is reinforced with what we are seeing in PPM. We are beginning to see encoded streams of AM/FM broadcasts with significant audience in local markets.”

Online streaming revenue nearly quadrupled last year

According to the latest reports, online revenue nearly quadrupled last year, growing from $67 million to $247 million. It doesn’t stop there - on average, online revenue is expected to increase an average of $132 million through 2013.

Most experts agree that the increasing popularity of online radio - driven by expanding wifi and mobile devices that can stream stations – is just what radio needs. As the popularity of online radio increases, more and more advertisers are coming around to it, spelling great revenue growth for stations.

Broadcasters that stream online are poised to take advantage of the continual growth in online radio dollars over the next several years!

"Buy Now" Amazon Button on all DCS Players

Securenet Systems has just finished implementing a brand new feature for station managers which allow station managers to earn commission on music purchased from Amazon.com. There is now a “Buy Now” Amazon button on all players running DCS which automatically updates to the song currently playing. Clicking on the button takes the listener directly to the Amazon purchase page for that title of single or album. Using a cookie to track purchases, the affiliate receives anywhere from 4% - 15% depending on the product purchased.

The cookie tracks ANY purchase from that button . . . . NOT JUST THE TITLE OF THAT TRACK OR ALBUM, but any product on the entire Amazon property that the listener may decide to purchase. All that is needed is an Amazon Associates account.

Securenet Systems also added a new feature to the player for active DCS stations; when a new song artist and title is displayed, the album art is also displayed in place of the billboard for 15 seconds.

After 15 seconds, the billboard re-appears. After that, at any time during the song the listener mouses over anywhere in the controls field where the “Buy Now” button is, the album art appears. Mouse away, album art gone, billboard re-appears.

. . . . providing that the album art is available from Amazon. If no album art is available; e.g. obscure title, incorrect title, etc., nothing will display.

Listeners can also stream to their iPhones and Blackberry Storms via mobile streaming. This new feature lets radio station operators generate buttons/banners that can be placed on their website. When a listener clicks on the Mobile Streaming button, full navigation instructions are provided to them with the stream information for that station already embedded. Currently, this feature is only available to iPhones and other phones that use Windows Mobile, Iike the Blackberry Storm. However, new upgrades are coming out for other versions of Blackberry.