Good article on CBS Radio and their emerging web strategy.
From the article...
Two months ago, when wildfires scorched hundreds of square miles in Southern California, forcing the evacuation of a half-million people, listenership spiked on KNX Radio, the CBS-owned outlet in Los Angeles. But the uptick wasn't for the station's on-air signal; listeners had instead tuned into the station on the Internet.
The average daily listenership for the newscasts on the KNX audio stream soared tenfold over the weeklong period that the fire dominated the headlines.
The online listenership spike experienced by KNX during the fires, and the real-time metrics available to quantify such digital audiences, reinforce the radio industry's need to expand its Web content. All 140 CBS Radio stations (in addition to 10 Internet-only outlets) are now streamed online to tap into today's fast-growing digital ad platform. And plans call for the development of much more Web content.
"Our digital revenue is growing significantly every year," said Mason. Those dollars are also helping radio counter a drain on the broadcast side, where spending has been flat at just over $21 billion (according to the Radio Advertising Bureau) for the last three years, as advertisers have sought better measured and more accountable media. Over-the-air radio ratings routinely have a three-month lag time, much to the dismay of clients and ad buyers.
Mason declined to say how much the digital revenues contributed to the division's coffers, but a media analyst at BMO Capital Markets estimates that 3 to 5 percent of the industry's revenue, (or roughly $640 million to $1 billion) are generated by online ad sales. Westerfield says the radio industry will continue to develop its online presence.
"The growth in media use is clearly growing on the Internet, and growth of advertising dollars is also migrating to the Web, so it makes sense for the radio companies to develop attractive commercial audio entertainment brands on the Internet."
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