GenDigital

ESPN Expands Online Presence With Market-Specific Radio Stations

Realizing the potential and current draw of the Internet radio market, ESPN is wasting no time staking its claim. The company announced yesterday that it is creating online radio sites for five markets including New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Dallas and Los Angeles. Not surprisingly, probably the five most sports-crazed markets nationally, although I'm sure Boston and Indy would have something to say about that. Regardless, it is a shrewd move on the part of ESPN. The local sites will feature a combination of national and market-specific content. The planned features include podcasts, interactive calendars, and polling systems. Perhaps it was the number of young people in one of their core targets that made ESPN act. According to our latest research about one in four (22%) of teen and college aged men streamed online radio at least once in the past month. Among those who regularly listen to online radio, more than half, (56%) say they stream sports-related content.

Jane Mag Founder Coming Back Choosing Radio Over Print

It was only a matter of time before mega successful creative Jane Pratt announced her next venture. I've followed her successful career ever since she was at former teen stalwart Sassy. Her next gig though has nothing to do with print at all. Following the current media consumption trends, Jane signed a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio to produce and star in a once a week, three hour, live radio show airing on the fledging satellite radio network that will be called "Jane Radio." This most recent announcement by Sirius, the number two satellite radio provider among teens and college students behind XM (although Sirius has been gaining closer), adds another strong personality to their growing list of content targeted towards a female audience, giving it a strategic advantage over XM. The show is expected to launch later this fall.

Satellite Radio Finally Gaining Traction In Youth Market

After more than four years of tracking satellite radio penetration and planned subscriptions among teens and college students, we are finally starting to see some serious, measurable growth in the category. After more than two years of overall penetration for both carriers at less than 3% of all college students nationally, this spring we saw the number more than double to 8% of all students. Among the 8%, and much like the trend among the general U.S. population, Sirius is catching up to XM in terms of total subscribers, with Sirius capturing 3% of all students and XM securing 5%. So, the real question is, why is satellite radio finally catching on, and please don't tell me because Howard Stern is now on Sirius. He may be huge for the broader U.S. population, but among college students specifically, only a relatively small percentage (less than 8%) listen to talk radio shows on a regular basis. What's more, we asked some of our panelists late last year as Howard was making the transition to Sirius if they were interested in subscribing to Sirius, again, only a tiny percentage (less than 3%) said they were at least "somewhat interested." So, back to the question, what is it. We believe it is two-fold. The first factor is the growing percentage of college students acquiring new vehicles in the past year that are already equipped with service from either XM or Sirius. We've noted an increase in the number of students who are purchasing new vehicles instead of used vehicles in the past two years, and this could help explain part of the growth pattern. Secondly, as it relates to the content offered by each major provider, the amount of sports and entertainment coverage along with the hundreds of commercial free stations is beginning to resonate with some segments of the audience, mainly older students 21+, who live off campus and have some level of a commute to class. Would you rather listen to 7 spots on your way to school or catch three songs? You can guess the answer. If anyone else has any ideas on what's going on in the satellite radio category, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

CBS Radio Inks Huge Text Messaging Deal

CBS Radio is set to announce a deal today that will offer text messaging services to listeners in many leading markets in hopes of driving ancillary advertising revenue. CBS Radio has partnered with Vibes, the producer of the iRadio Instant Response Text Messaging Platform, to deliver the new service to 41 CBS-owned stations, including 25 in New York and Los Angeles. Under the new service, individual stations will have the ability to create customized promotions and enhance current advertising deals with marketers. In case you were wondering, text messaging among Gen Y is nothing less than massive, with more than eight in ten sending and receiving text messages during a typical month.