Hi Maryjane,
This past May, at Radio Days North America, Kevin Johnson, the president of WPP Canada, gave a presentation where he urged all players in audio to stop categorizing by platform and instead present a holistic “audio ecosystem.” He explained,“it means audio; it does not mean radio, plus streaming, plus podcasts,” as reported by Broadcast Dialogue.
That’s the spirit in which the Signal Hill Insights team created Audio on the Move, the first comprehensive and holistic study of audio consumption by Canadians aged 12+, across platforms, devices and locations.
Today we release the first key findings to the public. Spoiler alert: audio is widely popular – 9-in-10 Canadians listened to audio media yesterday. I reveal more insights in this week’s blog post.
Also in this newsletter, get our take on a unifying definition of what a “podcast” is, why creators overestimate competition in podcasting, and AM/FM radio’s “big data” moment.
Until next time,
Paul Riismandel
President, Signal Hill Insights
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Audio on the Move Report Shows YouTube Is Changing the Canadian Audio Landscape |
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Canadians still love audio. This is true despite the apparent consumer preference for video, and growing public concern about supposed addictions to short-form video and an associated shortening of attention spans.
In fact, 90% of Canadians aged 12+ listened to some form of audio yesterday, including AM/FM radio, streaming music, music on YouTube, audio or video podcasts, SiriusXM, audiobooks, Stingray music channels on TV, and physical media.
This finding comes from Signal Hill Insights’ new Audio on the Move report, Canada’s first comprehensive and holistic share-of-audio study.
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| | New Benchmarks Compare Brand Lift Between Audio and Video Podcast Ads, and More |
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| | Like so many podcasters, buyers and advertisers I talk to, I’m sure you’re eager to learn how video stacks up to audio. We’ll get to that – sharing the first large-scale comparison between the two formats – but first I want to reveal a little more about our new Benchmarks report...
READ MORE |
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Here's some of what got us thinking over the past couple weeks: |
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“If it works with your eyes closed, it’s a podcast.” That’s the “short version” of a definition proffered by the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP) in the just released AMP Accords. The 12-member AMP task force, organized by Oxford Road founder and CEO Dan Granger, also proposes new frameworks for measuring audience exposure and advertising attribution. Our take: The podcast definition is reasonable and manages to avoid technical essentialism – such as relying on RSS or HLS – that is too easily undermined by future innovation and disruption. The other proposals are thoughtfully ambitious and well informed, with clear acknowledgements of both engineering and collaboration challenges.
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According to a new Podchaser analysis, podcast creators and publishers, “often overestimate the amount of meaningful competition they face,” reports Podcast News Daily. While Podchaser tracks 6 million podcasts, only about 7% are actively publishing new episodes, and even fewer have traction in the marketplace. Rather than being overwhelmed by the volume of podcasts, publishers should look for whitespace, they advise. Our take: This is a trenchant analysis. Zero-sum-game thinking and chasing an over-crowded category is needlessly limiting. As we’ve observed, podcasting is really a long-tail medium. Research is key to identifying opportunities.
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“AM / FM radio’s ‘big data’ moment has arrived,” writes Cumulus Media’s Pierre Bouvard, reporting on Xperi’s DTS AutoStage, which reports in-car AM/FM radio use from 6 million vehicles in over 300 U.S. markets. The service provides familiar metrics like time-spent-listening, market share and cume, using data from radios in vehicles from 10 auto manufacturers. Our take: The car continues to dominate AM/FM radio consumption in both the U.S. and Canada (as we see in Audio on the Move), and this additional dataflow will assist broadcasters in measuring audiences.
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Signal Hill Insights. 3080 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON, M4N 3N1 |
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