THE DIGITAL AUDIO TAIL IS ABOUT TO WAG THE BROADCAST DOG:  Two weeks ago I posted an article ‎on the MRC’s attempt to standardize Digital Audio Measurement (DAM).  While there’s still work to be done before this new standard is implemented across the industry one thing is already very clear – once DAM gets integrated in the buy side there will be considerable pressure on broadcast radio to meet these same standards.  In the attached AdExchanger article, guest author and Pandora’s Director of Product Management Jonathan Eccles lays out two ways broadcast radio measurement will be impacted.  The first is a quirky Nielsen ratings anomaly in which radio stations get credited for a quarter hour of listening time if a person listens for at least five consecutive minutes in that window.  Pretty sweet deal for radio – someone tunes in for five minutes and they get to sell that as 15 minutes of listening time to advertisers.  Once DAM mainstreams buyers will be able to see exactly who’s listening down to the second and not just a quarter hour estimate.  The other change DAM will bring to radio is the idea of Audibility.  Just like OLV buys, which are often transacted on viewability guarantees, digital audio will eventually be purchased using audibility.  While this will be challenging for the streamers, it will be nearly impossible for broadcasters who can’t prove if individual listeners hear an ad.  Between closing the loophole on the 5/15 minute discrepancy and introducing audibility, broadcasters better figure out how to get on board now before the DAM train leaves the station.

SNAP BACK:  On Tuesday Snap, Inc. announced stronger than expected revenue and user growth during its Q4 earning call.  Snapchat added 6M DAUs in Q4 and grew it’s ad revenue by 38% compared to Q3’17.  This is the first positive earnings report since Snap went public in March’17, which bounced the stock up +23% in intra-day trading.  What’s most interesting to me are the details inside these numbers.  As reported in the attached AdExchanger link, an astounding 90% of Snap’s ads were sold programmatically, with most transactions occurring through their self-service API portal.  The only downside to this trend is pricing – by commoditizing and automating their ad units Snap’s average CPM dropped 25% YoY.  Regardless of the price erosion, Snap seems to have found their monetization footing through automation.  And since money is lifeblood in digital media I’d expect them to run the same play for the foreseeable future.

REAL GROWTH OR MOVING PEAS AROUND THE PLATE?:  The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) and Borrell Associates are out with some fresh brag stats on the growth of digital revenue for broadcast radio.  As you can see in the attached Inside Radio link and image below, there’s a nice trend line developing.  In 2017 total digital billing for broadcasters topped $700M, which was +13% YoY and an $83M increase in raw dollars over 2016.  While that’s a great headline it belies the reality that radio still isn’t growing.  Because for every dollar of digital growth there’s almost one dollar lost in spot billing – Local/National Spot rev decreased by over $60M in 2017.  There are two ways of looking at this shift.  It’s either radio being resourceful by using digital to make up over-the-air revenue attrition, or stations having to add on layers of digital deliverables to dress up their stale core product just to save existing buys.  Either way this isn’t the resounding success the RAB would have you believe.

Have a great Thursday guys!