iHeartMedia Networks Group President Darren Davis has agreed to a four-year contract extension, a month before his 25th anniversary with the company. He began his iHeart (and radio) career as an intern at WASH-FM in Washington, D.C. Continue Reading
In another milestone buy-in to podcasting from traditional radio, Entercom has acquired 45% of podcast development and advertising company DGital Media. We spoke with Spencer Brown, CEO of DGital Media, and Jay Green, Senior Vice President of Strategy & Analytics. Continue Reading
In the Q2 iHeartMedia earnings call yesterday, President, COO, and CFO Rich Bressler held forth on company vision. Not unpredictably, he evangelized iHeart’s dominant reach as the largest U.S. radio company, with particular comparisons to the Entercom/CBS Radio merger. He also made an interesting comparison. Continue Reading
Borrell Associates put on a free webinar on Wednesday, hosting presenters Fred Jacobs (Jacobs Media) and Steve Goldstein (Amplifi Media) to talk about smart speakers, and their importance to radio. The program evangelized the platform’s rise as an important opportunity for radio, and offered a takeaway list of tips. Continue Reading
A month after Pandora turned a corner with a new CEO, new board members, and new minority owner, the company released Q2 earnings. During the webcast investor call interim Chief Executive Naveen Chopra went through the basic financial metrics and took questions from investors. Click through for key points in the Q&A. Continue Reading
XAPPmedia has been selected by Scripps to develop Alexa skills for all 34 Scripps radio stations across 13 states. Amazon Alexa is the voice-activated smart speaker operating system which resides in the Echo, Dot, and Echo Show devices.
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We are in a milestone year for audio. 2017 has been called “The year of the podcast” and “Podcasting’s breakthrough year.” At the same time, Smart Speakers are rocketing into consumer consciousness … and into their homes. RAIN Summit Austin is the gathering to know more about new audio technology, new listening habits, the latest consumer trends, and how radio is taking advantage of the brightest opportunities. Continue Reading
Year-over-year listening to streams gained 13% in May, according to Triton Digital’s monthly Webcast Metrics report, released today. Webcast listening in May was mostly flat compared to the previous month, looking at Triton Digital’s top 20 streaming clients. Pureplay internet streaming grew at a dramatically higher rate than broadcast streaming, year-over-year. Continue Reading
Pandora stock is benefitting today from two encouraging pieces of Wall Street news. As of this post, P stock is up three percent, to its highest level of July. One investor’s note to clients reveals how Pandora is re-allocating resources to favor the radio service, putting Pandora Premium in maintenance mode. Continue Reading
In 2016 the RAIN Internet Radio Awards celebrate their 7th year as the most prestigious celebration of excellence in the online audio industry. Click through for categories, and the submission link. It’s easy, and it’s free. Continue Reading
A new report has been issued by The Download on Podcasting, the ongoing collaborative study of on-demand audio from DMR Interactive and the Digital Media Research and Development Lab at Texas A&M University. In discussing audience measurement the paper spotlights Nielsen’s technology and compares podcasting to craft beer. Continue Reading
Last week we began receiving notes from webcasting clients of two large hosting companies, Radionomy and StreamLicensing, noting that recent changes and communications had troubled their webcast stations. The two situations are coinciding in time, but are unrelated — except both are about music licensing. Continue Reading