Triton COO Blog: Simulcasting Debunked (Part 4 & 5)

Mike Agovino

TRITON DIGITAL COO MIKE AGOVINO has posted the third of a five-part series to the company blog -- titled "Simulcasting Debunked (Part 4 & 5)." In Part 4 he writes:

"Some broadcasters have focused on differentiating radio from pureplay services in an attempt to minimize the latter’s perceived advertising value. Common cries of 'that’s not radio' and 'personalization is a feature' are often heard at industry events. Citing the value of human curation and the 'between the records' content (compelling personalities and localized content), broadcasters have attempted to 'block' pureplay companies from participation in the radio economy.

"There are only so many consumers and so many hours in the day. The overall audience levels for audio content have remained fairly steady over the past 5 years. The difference now is that those audience levels are spread between broadcast, satellite and IP delivery methods. Simultaneously, consumer choice has expanded dramatically within those delivery methods due to a large cast of new publishers and new business models in the space. The result is a new, highly fragmented marketplace where publisher dominance in any given market/segment is a rarity.

"The demand side has welcomed this fragmentation. The broadcast story of deeper consumer relationships/trust and the beneficial impact of such have largely fallen on deaf ears. Recently I had a major agency radio director tell me, 'Sure, I buy into the relationship power between local host and audience. But unless I’m buying live endorsements, I discount it by the 20 ads an hour that the consumer seeks to avoid'.

"My personal experience over the last couple of years has actually been that agencies seem to favor the digital listening audience over broadcast, and that they display no vulnerability to the 'it’s not radio' argument."

Read the full blog here.

In Part 5, he asks, "A year from now APPLE will be the traditional broadcaster’s competition. Think about that for a moment. Expect an elegant delivery of iTUNES RADIO in their next OS release, and it’s off to the races. What does that mean for simulcast?"

Read Part 5 here.

« see more Net News