Non-Spot Radio Revenue Projections

Radio Advertising Bureau estimates for 2006 revenue have been out for 10-weeks. Here’s a Media Post summary and I’ve added included the table here.

 
No revelation that total radio revenue is up just 1%.  The entire industry vitality comes from Non-Spot programs.  Non-Spot grew 10% or $138-million to $1,522-million.   A moment about total audited advertising … all $150-billion.  TV holding.  Newspapers, radio and outdoor holding at best.  The internet is has just passed radio in total ad revenue growing 34% last year.  See discussion here .    

What can we learn?  Advertising vitality is video and internet.  “Non-Spot” is the radio industry vitality.  Internet programs deliver total advertising industry momentum.    Radio “Non-Spot” is small at 7% of the industry revenue but if current trends continue “Non-Spot” will be more important than Network spots and could grow 50% over the next 4-years.      

User-generated video for radio web sites could be a powerful tool to take advantage of growing Non-Spot revenue.   Cell-it offers a fully hosted program that comes to life on your web site in just one-afternoon.   How do your revenue projections look?

Managers, Leaders, Board Games, and Opportunity

Managers count mistakes as unbudgeted losses and worse …  capital write offs.  Leaders recognize mistakes as missed opportunities.   IBM may have lost money building personal computers but did they lose more not understand the opportunity Microsoft became.  Microsoft lost money building the xBox but did they lose more missing the opportunity Google became.

Today media companies buy and sell properties to gain efficiency.  While they move properties around like hotels on a board game, the opportunity shifts to powerful new organizations like YouTube and MySpace. 

How can media companies with their incredible reach and massive audiences miss developing their internet properties?  Advertising clients have exciting, powerful, and image building option.  Funding  for old media support is shifting to new media vehicles.  No client will be thought less of for experimenting with new internet programs.  Maybe they will even be rewarded for leading the change. 

Old line media properties still have the audience and they have the opportunity build a bigger new media organization.  Technology is easy to buy.  The audience has clearly shown they want interactivity, they like 24/7, and they want to participate.  If shown the way and most of programs are easily purchased then why don’t media companies change?  It’s a good question.  Why couldn’t IBM see the value of Windows?  Why couldn’t Microsoft see Google coming?  Why can’t media companies see their audience changing?

Media websites need to be more than brochures for concert schedules and contact lists.  Involve your audience, listen to them, allow them to participate and they will be yours for a long time.   Keep broadcasting a one-way message and the ether-net may overcome you.     

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Cell-it offers hosted media services for radio, television, and newspaper websites.  You can engage your audience to put down that iPod and pick up their cell phone.  They will participate with pictures and video.  Their voices will be heard.  They will help you build powerful new community features.  The technology is available and can be working for you in as little as one afternoon at less than the cost of an airplane ticket.  Time to fly.   

Cell-it Hosted Media Services (PDF File)

A complete file included here gives a good overview of how we work and what we do.

Use this link to download the PDF file: Description of Services (Ver 2-7)

The file is quite large.  You can see the details, the descriptions, and the flow of our hosted media services.

Adventures in Broadcasting

We spent Friday – Saturday with Doug Harris attending his Adventures in Broadcasting Seminar. What a great time and a lot of learning.

Check out the video and pictures we posted from the seminar and at Doug’s reception Friday Night.

Here is a few pictures of Doug Harris, Steve Poley, Randy Peterson, and Jim Taszarek.

I’m sure all enjoyed the program.

Cell Phone Video Changes the Direction of Audience Trends

CNN coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy got a big kick start with a cell phone video (see earlier post).  The early Alexa traffic data suggest a big jump on this highly trafficked site.  http://alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=cnn.com (see picture insert below).  CNN got a bigger kick than other national news organizations.  In fact the recent surge breaks a 15-month slide.

Could cell phone video be the game changer?

 

CNN i-Reports Mainstreams Cell Phone Video

The Virginia Tech tragedy came alive to CNN viewers with a cell phone video posted in the i-Reports section.  The 41-second, shaky, hollow sounding video shares the popping gun shots and the raw emotions of the event.   We are wiser for the experience.   

You can read CNN’s report about Jamal Albarghouti and his cell phone here.  http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/16/vtech.witness/index.html

Perhaps the most important point for other broadcasters and news organizations is Jamal’s quote, “I knew it was something way more serious than that, so I started taking the video”.  He added, that he often visited CNN.com and knew he could send his video to I-Report. 

CNN a national organization captured the local Blacksburg, VA news better than any local organization and helped us better understand our world. 

What is your media organization doing?  

Related materials for user-generated posting

Information that could be helpful for issues with user-generated video postings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act

Main article: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was not part of the original Senate legislation, but was added in conference with the House, … as the Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act. It added valuable protection for online service providers and users from action against them for the actions of others, stating in part that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider“. Effectively, this section immunizes ISPs and other service providers from torts committed by users over their systems. As a result of the John Seigenthaler Sr. Wikipedia biography controversy, and other incidents where individuals have been allegedly libeled by anonymous or judgment-proof parties, this section of the Act has come under fire, with numerous calls for revisions to the Act to restore service provider liability in some cases.

Through the so-called Good Samaritan provision, this section also protects ISPs from liability for restricting access to certain material or giving others the technical means to restrict access to that material.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCILLA

Take down and put back provisions

Requirements to obtain the safe harbor

To obtain the safe harbor the OSP must:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>not have actual knowledge that the material or an activity using the material on the system or network is infringing (512(c)(1)(A)(1)).

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>not be aware of facts or circumstances from which infringing activity is apparent (512(c)(1)(A)(2)).

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>upon obtaining such knowledge or awareness, must act expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material. (512(c)(1)(A)(2) and 512(c)(1)(C))

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>not receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity, in a case in which the service provider has the right and ability to control such activity (512(c)(1)(B)).

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>have a Designated Agent registered with the US Copyright Office to receive notifications of claimed infringement (often called takedown notices). If the designated agent receives a notification which substantially complies with the notification requirements, the OSP now has actual knowledge and must expeditiously disable access to the work. The OSP must make available to the public through its service, including on its web site substantially this information:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>1.      <!–[endif]–>the name, address, phone number and electronic mail address of the agent.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>2.      <!–[endif]–>other contact information which the Register of Copyrights may deem appropriate.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>adopt, reasonably implement, and inform subscribers and account holders of a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of subscribers and account holders of the service provider’s system or network who are repeat infringers (512(i)(1)(A)).

<!–[if !supportLists]–>·         <!–[endif]–>accommodate and not interfere with standard technical measures used to identify and protect copyrighted works (512(i)(1)(B)).

Concern about user-generated video for TV & Radio websites

Presenting Cell-it Hosted Video Services to media owners brings out a concern.  Almost immediately, GMs, PDs, GSMs, and NTR managers tell you they need user-generated video.  They get that cell phone video is an answer for the iPod generation.  They acknowledge the one-way television and radio broadcasting suffers by not engaging their audience.  The fall is taking careers for the roller coaster ride.  Revenue budgets, sales goals, and quotas go unmet, undelivered.  Nobody is slacking.    

Cell-it Hosted Media is one answer.   After learning how easy and how effective user-generated materials can help build community and increase audience involvement, managers move quickly to secure the organization’s approval.

Enthusiasm and innovation can meet immediate leadership concerns.  There are legitimate discussions but too often concerns turn into paralyzing, overwhelming conditions.  User-generated materials are potent.  They can raise an audience.  They can build a community.  Can they end a career?  Can they jeopardize an FCC license?

Yes, to all.  However, declining audience figures, lower revenues, and missed budgets are also career concerns. The Don Imus incident shows us any content can be career ending no matter how much program revenue. 

The answer is to act responsibly, have tools to work effectively, and share user-generated content with good management.  If your organization wants user-generated video with controls then Cell-it pre-posting approval procedures, community reporting, and our program management tools can work for you.

The answer to do nothing is very expensive.  Choose wisely.  

Va Tech 2 Hour Gap – A Communication Answer Hiding in Plain Sight

In the Virginia Tech tragedy, students asked why they were not informed in the two hours and ten minutes between shootings. Engineering students, tech majors, and every student with a cell phone is aware, and equipped to handle information. They expect others to use these tools.

Amazing how the administration thought. Warnings to 11,000 student residents; 15,000-commuters; 7,000 employees; and 3,000 visitors seemed impossible. Blacksburg television, radio, and newspapers lack the immediate campus focus. Online and email mobility was overlooked. Despite its name instant messaging and texting was not considered an answer.

Perhaps the answer is hiding in plain sight. Structure is blocking the view. The administration’s normal top down communication structure hides these new tools. Television-radio central broadcasting is an immediate first step. Online helps confirm details. The new structure functions with cell phones to complete the communications and deliver the message with personal calls and text lists. The communications answer exists, it functions, and it has the capacity to inform quickly and completely.

The answer starts with broadcasting. Television, radio, and online/email broadcasts get the immediate message started quickly and broadly. Cell phones take the message to every corner. Cell phones immediately communicate to the most important points. Texting and immediate calls get the information where it is most important.

Students know how these tools work together. They understand how fast and effective communications flow. They trust each other to get relevant, important, and perhaps life saving information exactly where it’s needed. Personal calls and texting are the final link.

The answer is to incorporate cell phones in the broadcast. Ask those that receive the broadcast to keep the message moving to commuters, workers, and those not connected to the broadcast media.

This is a two-way communication. Perhaps you have seen the CNN i-Report (http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/ireports/2007/04/16/ireport.va.tech.shooting.cnn). Broadcast media benefit from cell phones. Cell cameras are the eye witness to every corner of our world. Open your organization to this army of video and pictures. Allow the community to participate. If we rely on central administrations to act we will always be two-hours and ten minutes behind.

Cell Phone Video … part of our lives

It’s a bad day at Virginia Tech but a telling day for our digital lives. Students have cell phone cameras and they use them. CNN has a pretty good video on the i-Reports section. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/16/vtech.witness/index.html

Amazing how much this shaky, poor sound quality clip takes us to the scene.

CNN i-Reports had been available for 6-months that I know. Up to now, some interesting weather events but nothing as dramatic as this college campus incident. It got there because CNN set the stage in student minds that they are the place to report news. They worked hard and the results indicate a good effort is well rewarded.

The real question is … how will your news organization use cell phone video?

The option to ignore cell phone video is even riskier now that CNN i-Reports can reach into any event, any city, any place and any time.

We can help you catch the news or CNN will take the stage in your market.