KnowDigital Study Interviews Streaming Audio Users About Car Use

New Study

KNOWDIGITAL's SAM MILKMAN presented a new study on in-car streaming audio at the RAIN SUMMIT in LAS VEGAS, including individual interviews of consumers to gauge their perceptions. 

MILKMAN said that participants were recruited based on their streaming use, but not for their use of streaming in the car, and the firm was surprised to find that most had already found ways to stream in the car through their smartphones.  If streaming to the car is the future, MILKMAN said, "the future is now."

The study identified challenges to streaming in cars, including technical obstacles and hassles, safety concerns, and data caps.  The responses also contradicted the popular perception that streaming to cars will kill terrestrial radio, with subjects saying that they use "regular radio" for news, sports, and morning shows, and tend to turn the radio on first rather than their apps (because of habit, ease of use, and unique content).  Most respondents would buy an in-dash solution to make it easier to stream to the car, with $300-$400 being an "attractive price point."  (About 40% of respondents were already familiar with FORD Sync).  In an additional test, respondents assigned streams to 10 preset buttons, and most of them said they needed only five or fewer buttons; traditional AM/FM stations usually made one or two of the presets.

Arbitron's Krasinski, Rose Review Results Of Latest 'Infinite Dial' Study

ARBITRON's PAUL KRASINSKI and BILL ROSE presented an overview of the latest installment of the company's and HARKER RESEARCH's "Virtual Dial" study (NET NEWS 4/5). The study shows radio expanding rather than declining, with online radio TSL increasing 49% in the last three years. Among the highlights: 88% of American households have Internet access, with 86% of those having broadband and 23% having wireless; 51% have two or more working computers, and 45% said that the Internet is the most essential thing to life. 31% have smartphones, triple the number from 2009. 35-44s are the fastest growing segment for social media, and 43% are accessing social networking sites via mobile devices.

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