Radio Shark - with Securenet Systems

Over the last couple of years of streaming, there has been a noticeable shift in terrestrial listeners to alternative modes of listening; namely, desktops and mobile devices.

Mobile ad spending is growing. . . and it has local advertising to thank. Over the next few years, we will see a large increase in mobile ad spending, with numbers close to $4 billion by 2015.

There has been a lot of talk in the radio industry about how the growth of mobile device streaming is going to be stifled by over-demand and the lack of internet provisioning. The fact is, all of the major bandwidth companies are gearing up for this huge explosion in user demand by constantly building out their networks.

With the tremendous number of listener sites, Pandoras, competing stations, etc., you can’t expect your listeners to always remember they can listen to your broadcast online or on-the-go, so you have to constantly remind them. So, what are some ways to get the message across about your online streaming?

Some recent online growth statistics make it hard to refute that as a broadcaster, you shouldn’t be taking your online streaming seriously. It’s just not streaming anymore . . . it’s mission-critical.

The latest studies and research show that stations that use blogging and social media to supplement their online presence, gain more in listener loyalty than stations that do not.

As more and more stations and broadcasters are beginning to realize, online listeners and visitors are not only used to seeing ads, but are in full acceptance of ads. According to Forbes Magazine, Amazon recently conducted their own survey of Kindle customers and came up with some not-so-surprising facts.

As many of our listeners know, we have been addressing the fantastic growth of mobile apps and in-car streaming over the last several weeks. What we haven’t addressed however, is the tremendous need in the growth of infrastructure in order to support this growth factor. If you have seen or heard AT&T ads lately, you will hear them extolling the facts of their build-out to keep up with demand, both cellular and broadband.

Look around and you’ll see smartphones galore, but people aren’t just using them to surf the internet, check email, or update their Facebook status. Although in previous articles I have written about the growth of in-car streaming, there are still the proverbial pros and cons.

From banners to rich media ads, banners are on the rise. There are ads powering everything today, and now we are seeing a resurgence in basic display banners, accounting for 23.9% of all ad revenue last year.