Weekly Roundup – January 7th, 2025
Roundup Links
FCC Sees Radio Holding Up In Face Of New Threats From Online Audio
"While some broadcasters have argued that the share of listeners for AM/FM radio has been declining due to increased competition from other platforms, the FCC tells Congress the data tells a different story. Stats show the number of weekly listeners to AM/FM radio in the U.S. remained relatively stable while the audience for online audio programming grew steadily."
Our Take: Radio remains resilient in face of an ever-changing media environment. However, if you haven't made your radio programs available in some digital streaming capacity - be it show highlights on a podcast, dedicated station stream - you need to do so immediately.
Amazon Doubles Down On Advertising Push In Return To TV's Upfront Week
"Amazon is once again looking to take on the traditional TV companies in the advertising space, using the Consumer Electronics Show to announce a return to TV’s upfront week, and taking over a time that in past years has been the home for Fox.
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And Amazon says that it plans to use its event to push all of its ad-supported business and media ambitions, including Amazon MGM Studios, Prime Video, Twitch, Wondery, and Fire TV Channels. The company says that it now has a monthly ad-supported audience of more than 275 million in the U.S. alone."
Our Take: There is currently a race among the major streamers to replicate not only the experience of cable (tons of ads, tiered pricing, package deals, etc.), but also cable's profits during its heyday back in the late 90's/early 2000's.
8 Facts About Americans and TikTok
"...A third of U.S. adults use TikTok. Younger adults are especially likely to do so: 59% of adults under 30 say they use the app, compared with 40% of Americans ages 30 to 49, 26% of those 50 to 64, and 10% of those 65 and older.
TikTok stands out from other platforms we’ve asked about for the rapid growth of its user base. Between 2021 and 2023, the share of U.S. adults saying they use it rose from 21% to 33%."
Our Take: Neither political party wants to alienate TikTok users with a ban, especially young TikTok users. If they were to ban it (unlikely), expect the ban at the beginning of a congressional session - after an election has just taken place.
VSiN, The Sports Betting Network, Brings its Leading Sports Betting Content to SiriusXM
"VSiN, the first media network dedicated to sports betting, will bring its premier sports betting programming back to SiriusXM beginning January 17, 2025. Airing nationwide on SiriusXM channel 158 and on the SiriusXM app, VSiN’s content will bring SiriusXM listeners and sports enthusiasts the expert insights and analysis they need, 24/7."
Our Take: Go to any professional sports arena in a state in which sports betting is legal. Glance around you. There will be at least one or two people in your immediate vicinity actively gambling on sports through a betting app. Any concerns about sports betting are out the window at this point as it is too popular and makes too much money.
Are music streaming platforms flattening users' tastes?
"Spotify's strategy, according to Harper’s Magazine, has been for years to influence users' tastes to encourage them to use playlists as background music for their activities. For this reason, the platform has promoted the discovery of such collections primarily based on the imagery and "mood" they evoke, rather than the artists and songs included in them. Spotify has thus been able to populate its playlists with so-called "fake artists," who collaborate with the platform to produce large amounts of tracks for atmospheric playlists, such as the popular “Stress Relief.” This approach allows Spotify to save on royalties owed to real musicians by signing preliminary and more advantageous agreements with selected composers tasked with creating many of the tracks in the platform's most popular collections."
Our Take: For music purists, circumventing the payment of royalties to established artists for inclusion of their work in playlists by contracting lesser known producers to create songs specifically for curated 'mood' playlists is self-evidently a negative for music overall. For the business purists, understanding that most media consumption nowadays is fundamentally passive is key to cutting costs and boosting profits - you throw on a 'chill' playlist while doing your dishes, you watch a Theo Von podcast while crunching numbers at work, you have Stephen A. fulminating in the background while you sit on your couch browsing the Dallas Cowboys subreddit, you listen to 'My Favorite Murder' over Alexa while doing laundry.
Recent Blogs from Crowd React Media
2025 Media Predictions
To kickstart 2025, Sean Bos (co-founder of Crowd React Media and vice-president of research at Harker Bos Group), gives us his media predictions for the new year.
Sean Bos
Sean Bos is a founder of Crowd React Media and VP of Branding & Research at Harker Bos Group.