The past fifteen years have about incredible disruption to broadcasters. It used to be so simple – you created a 24-hour stream of programming, sent it out from your tower to a specific broadcast area, generated ratings, and you were in business.
Then along came technology that changed everything – DVR’s put the power of scheduling into the hands of the view. Smartphones became the “Swiss Army Knife” of media, enabling consumers to be able to listen to audio, watch video, read the news, share everything, and more all in the palm of their hand. And on and on.
Anyone who thinks that the technology wave has crested is making a mistake, because there’s a new gadget on the market that’s being adopted rapidly by consumers – in-home voice activation devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home.
Adoption of these devices is happening quickly, and sales this past holiday season were brisk. Priced well below $200 (you can buy the Amazon Dot for $59), it was a hot gift item. In two weeks we will be releasing the results of our 13th annual Techsurvey, where we’ve found that not only does 11 pecent of the sample own one, but it’s a rare device in that it is as popular with millennials as it is with baby boomers. This is pretty huge penetration for a device and category that is less than two years old.
We have been studying this new category, and believe that it actually isn’t disruptive and is potentially additive for broadcasters. For example, when was the last time you tried to buy a radio for your home at Best Buy? It’s almost impossible. As a result, radio listening in the home has been slowly declining. But with these new devices, your stream is a voice command away via the Echo sitting on your kitchen counter: “Alexa, play WWWW.”
For radio stations, there is additional opportunity in the podcast and on-demand audio space, and other applications that we’re currently working on.
For television stations (as well as radio stations), a great way to expand viewer connection is by creating brief news headlines, weather reports, or even traffic reports that can be easily accessed by your audience while they are getting ready to start their day, or simply want to check in to see what’s happening in the world.
On top of broadening access to your content, there’s nothing stopping you from monetizing your voice commands with a brief (we recommend ten seconds, no more than fifteen) pre-roll announcement from a sponsor.
The voice commands are called “skills” and while some stations have staff that can create them, the cost of entry is relatively low to develop simple as well as complex skills, and there are companies already moving into the space (full disclosure, our company has as well).
While we realize that it seems that every few months we encounter “the NEXT big thing,” there is ample evidence that getting your radio or television station onto Amazon’s Echo platform (Google Home availability will come later) is a smart way to expand your content delivery as well as your audience engagement.
Jacobs Media is pleased to provide digital consulting as a free service to WBA members. For questions, please contact Paul Jacobs at paul@jacobsmedia.com.
