 RAIN 5/4: Radio's online revenue grows 16.4% to $220 million in 2008 ·May 4, 11:58 AM YET FOCUS ON BANNER ADS MIGHT BE PREVENTING EVEN BIGGER GROWTHRadio was rewarded for its online efforts last year, according to a new Borrell Associates study (released Friday). But radio broadcasters should be getting an even bigger share of the $12.6 billion local advertisers spent online last year, the analysts say.
Radio’s 2008 local Internet revenue was up 16.4% over 2007, growing from $189 million to $220 million. Borrell predicts that growth rate will increase to 26% this year, bringing stations $277 in local online ad revenue. But, as MediaWeek analyzes it, “While online is the only radio sector showing significant growth, the industry lags well behind its newspaper, TV and Yellow pages Nonetheless, Borrell likes local media’s (including radio’s) progress when compared to purely online players, and credits local sales forces. “Could it be that the legacy media companies have finally turned their aircraft carriers?” writes Borrell in the study summary. “It’s possible, especially considering that they have an important asset that the pure-plays [e.g. Google, Local.com, Interactive Corp., Marchex, ReachLocal, etc.] don’t: an estimated 98,000 feet-on-the-street salespeople who have existing relationships with local advertisers and can cross-sell online advertising products. And they are adding ‘Internet-only’ sales reps at a rapid pace. At the beginning of 2009, this sales force numbered about 9,000, up 30% from a year ago. The Borrell Associates study, “What Local Media Websites Earn,” can be purchased here. MediaWeek has more analysis, including average per-station Web revenues, here. FOLLOW-UP ON EPOQ “TRANSISTOR-RADIO SIZED” WI-FI RADIO: PICTURE, PRICE… AND OH, IT’S NOT “WORLD’S FIRST”Last week RAIN reported here that a company called Epoq Multimedia plans to offer what it calls “the world’s first pocket-sized Wi-Fi radio” by the end of this month. We’ve since gotten of glimpse of the device (see photo), and learned that it’ll retail for $149.
But something in the old brain stem made us put that “world’s first” in quotes, as such a comprehensive claim is often toppled by an obscure predecessor that slid in under radar at an earlier date. Well, as these things go, there is another claimant to the “world’s first pocket-sized Anyhow, there’s more on the Epoq product at Twice.com here. UK RADIO FORMS “THE RADIO COUNCIL” TO STAKE CLAIM IN DIGITAL AGEThe Guardian reports the BBC and a group of Britain’s largest commercial broadcasters are joining together to form The Radio Council, “to help secure the medium’s future in the digital age.” The effort is part of the government’s “Digital Britain” initiative.The Radio Council will be led by the BBC; the UK’s three largest commercial radio groups (Global Radio, Bauer Media and GMG); and the RadioCentre (which represents smaller commercial radio groups). The Council will reportedly work on projects like a “shared online live radio player, multiplatform electronic programme guide and a range of exclusive digital-only content to help boost struggling digital audio broadcasting (DAB) stations.” Read The Guardian online here. share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
competitors, which each brought in more than $1 billion in local online revenue last year. The importance of online advertising to legacy media companies intensified in 2008: it now accounts for 3.4% of radio and TV station gross revenues.” In fact, Borrell says radio has the “greatest potential and the weakest realization” of its online potential among local media competitors. The problem, they say, is that “unlike their more diversified legacy media competitors, radio operators remain focused primarily on selling banners on radio station sites or up-selling advertisers into their audio-streaming programs.”
Wi-Fi Internet radio,” and we’ve covered it before! The Infusion 1, from Torian (who created the MiRoamer online portal that powers 
I went looking to see what was out there with the Torian Infusion. Amazon doesn’t have them in and doesn’t know if htey’ll get any more.
The confusion may be the co-branding matter. That makes things difficult to find as far as this product goes. Also the ambiguity of the battery requirements on this although it looks like a rechargeable internal power supply, not a good sales point when you might need to get a recharge on a long bus trip like I sometimes have to make.
And it looks like the Epoq one retracted the ‘AA battery’ feature as well from the earlier post I have since seen other matters that state it’s also using different power supply technology than most people will want.
— Jim Anderson · May 5, 11:02 AM · #