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Apple reportedly considers buying a stake in Iheart

Critics of iHeart have never understood its commitment to a digital streaming service, saying that the company should direct 100% of its attention and investment in its radio stations. But the rest of the world understood. The problem was the debt. If the company can come out of this bankruptcy with less debt, they will potentially have some interesting partners, with Apple, Sirius, and Pandora. They see value in iHeart's business model.
 
TheBigA said:
Critics of iHeart have never understood its commitment to a digital streaming service, saying that the company should direct 100% of its attention and investment in its radio stations. But the rest of the world understood. The problem was the debt. If the company can come out of this bankruptcy with less debt, they will potentially have some interesting partners, with Apple, Sirius, and Pandora. They see value in iHeart's business model.
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Why would Sirius want any part of terrestrial radio?
 
Don CT said:
Why would Sirius want any part of terrestrial radio?
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Some thoughts addressing your question:

1. Terrestrial radio still reaches over 90% of the American public daily.
2. Broadcast audio, while unidirectional, is still free and allows unlimited listening.
3. More efficient use of the spectrum (IBOC) allows multiple unidirectional channels from a single, licensed frequency, all providing free and unlimited listening.

Future radios will return data from listeners to content providers via wireless internet. Content will then be location and demo specific using a blend of terrestrial and internet delivered content. Audio will actually be stored in dormant listening periods via the internet and "mixed" with the unidirectional broadcast audio. Satellite will evolve into a similar operation. Think of the possibilities of location specific advertising! Imagine if advertisers could quantify demos of every single listener to a spot!!

Terrestrial radio is far from dead. It will certainly change techniques/modes but it will be with us for a long while.
 
wavo said:
Some thoughts addressing your question:

1. Terrestrial radio still reaches over 90% of the American public daily.
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How much of that audience is older than 50?

2. Broadcast audio, while unidirectional, is still free and allows unlimited listening.
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True, but how many of those stations have audiences that are attractive to advertisers? Not counting non-comms of course, maybe 10% of AM and 70% of FM stations, roughly?

3. More efficient use of the spectrum (IBOC) allows multiple unidirectional channels from a single, licensed frequency, all providing free and unlimited listening.
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Only if you have a radio that will tune those HD channels. I have two at home, but not in my car. And I have no plans to buy an after-market stereo for my car anytime soon, if ever. Nor am I in the market for a car that has it.

Future radios will return data from listeners to content providers via wireless internet. Content will then be location and demo specific using a blend of terrestrial and internet delivered content. Audio will actually be stored in dormant listening periods via the internet and "mixed" with the unidirectional broadcast audio. Satellite will evolve into a similar operation. Think of the possibilities of location specific advertising! Imagine if advertisers could quantify demos of every single listener to a spot!!
Click to expand...

Are those radios being developed now? Is the required infrastructure currently being developed and under test? If not, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them. Who's buying radios anyway, at least not that aren't a part of something else, like a car.

Terrestrial radio is far from dead. It will certainly change techniques/modes but it will be with us for a long while.
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Maybe, but a lot of what you're saying can be filed under "pipe dreams." And I'd love to have some of what you're putting in that pipe. :D
 
KeithE4 said:
Maybe, but a lot of what you're saying can be filed under "pipe dreams."
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All of what you're saying would apply to companies like Saga or radio companies that have mostly ignored the internet and streaming. That's not the case for iHeart.

Radio alone isn't as effective as it once was. Radio combined strategically with streaming, podcasting, live events, and other platforms is much more effective. That's what Liberty is trying to do.
 
KeithE4 said:
How much of that audience is older than 50?
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The percentage of persons cuming (using weekly) radio peaks in the 35-54 demos at around 93%. In the 18-34 demo, it is 89% to 91% depending on the market, and in 55+ it is about 91%.

Since radio in rated markets does not generally program for teens, pre-teens and seniors, data on those groups is influenced as much by lack of targeted radio formats as it is by interest in radio. In other words, were there a "teen only" radio station, you'd see changes in the teen usage. Caveat: we had a listener-less pre-teen radio service from Disney, but it was on AM and then on often poor facilities, so it is hard to evaluate.

So the answer is "there is a bit lower percentage of radio listening among 55+ persons than the percentage of that group in the population". Nit-picking: the top demo for ad agency business is generally 55, not 50. 18-49 is the core TV demo, while 25-54 is the radio core.

True, but how many of those stations have audiences that are attractive to advertisers? Not counting non-comms of course, maybe 10% of AM and 70% of FM stations, roughly?
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Ratings are generally used mostly for agency business. The smaller the market, the less agency business there is. So looking at measured audience size diminishes the smaller the market. While I've known of top stations in top 25 markets that did over 90% agency, ratings driven business, when you get to markets below #100, only a small percent, perhaps 15%, comes from out of market agency buys and most of that goes to the very top tier stations.

But local stations that sell mostly or only directly and which can generate sales can do very well without ratings, particularly in the medium and smaller markets.

And when you get to the unrated markets, you will find that the AMs with decent signals can be doing good business if they devote a bit of effort to programming.
 
My question is based on the fact that Sat Radio is uncensored with no commercials. Why would they go backwards?
 
Don CT said:
My question is based on the fact that Sat Radio is uncensored with no commercials. Why would they go backwards?
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Once again, it's not them, but the company that owns 69% of them. Very different situation.

Sirius has little control over what it's parent does. But at some point, they'll be sharing the same wallet.
 
Don CT said:
My question is based on the fact that Sat Radio is uncensored with no commercials. Why would they go backwards?
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First, SiriusXM sets aside relatively few channels as uncensored. All of the most popular mainstream music channels play "clean" versions of the songs.

Plenty of ads on SiriusXM, too, just not on the music channels. And an increasing number of those music channels are being pimped out to recording artists and their labels to push product in conjunction with tours -- or just to give a channel a "brand" and a license to play a half-dozen songs by the brand-name artist per hour (Kenny Chesney and Garth Brooks' channels, for example). So one can say that there is a form of advertising on some music channels.

Given Liberty Media's conservative leanings, I'd say FM is a good fit.
 
CTListener said:
First, SiriusXM sets aside relatively few channels as uncensored. ]

Given Liberty Media's conservative leanings, I'd say FM is a good fit.
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Also consider that iHeart was an original partner of XM back in the 90s. There are still a couple of channels that have connections to the old deal. Several former iHeart managers now oversee Sirius channels
 
KeithE4 said:
How much of that audience is older than 50?



True, but how many of those stations have audiences that are attractive to advertisers? Not counting non-comms of course, maybe 10% of AM and 70% of FM stations, roughly?



Only if you have a radio that will tune those HD channels. I have two at home, but not in my car. And I have no plans to buy an after-market stereo for my car anytime soon, if ever. Nor am I in the market for a car that has it.



Are those radios being developed now? Is the required infrastructure currently being developed and under test? If not, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them. Who's buying radios anyway, at least not that aren't a part of something else, like a car.



Maybe, but a lot of what you're saying can be filed under "pipe dreams." And I'd love to have some of what you're putting in that pipe. :D
Click to expand...


The pipe is empty these days. I have thought about moving to Colorado...

More and more cars come with HD radio. There are actually a few HD only stations starting to show up in the trends. Yes, only a few, but people are gradually finding their way around the modern, gadget filled cars. They should start off as niche channels until penetration is adequate for more main stream programming. Example - I wonder why there is no personal development channel. Jim Rohn....24 hours a day. You should see what sales pros spend on the cassettes/CDs to condition their minds. There's hundreds of people putting this stuff out there...why not round up a few for a HD format? Deliver it nationally? You get the idea...you will have to create demand for the radios and that won't happen until someone, somewhere starts thinking outside the box.

The automobile radio may be post technology in thirty years but not in my lifetime. It will probably not be used the same as you and I may have used it in the 50-90's but it will still be around in some form or fashion. My parents gathered around the radio every night in their younger years...being born in the 50s I never once "gathered around the radio " for evening entertainment. We watched television and all the radio stars that migrated to the new medium. Go read all the quotes from "experts" that said television would never catch on...

I don't have a crystal ball and I'm not in the consumer electronic development industry. I DO know advertising would be more effective if it were more demo and locality driven. Your radio/internet/audio listening would be a better experience if the ads you heard were specifically for people like you and featured products close by, or on your way to work, school, or home.

If you don't like ads then don't listen to the radio. Buy a MP3 player or pay for satellite radio, or Spotify/Pandora. Unless you're driving 100K a year and most of it is in the middle of no where you're throwing money away with satellite. $15/month for terrible audio quality and Howard Stern's same ol' schtick??!!

I listen to radio for the human interaction. I want to hear other voices and I want to know what they're thinking about. I want to hear ads for products I might want to try. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the marriage of internet and terrestrial radio would make the radio experience better. And as long as it continues to be free it will have listeners.
 
KeithE4 said:
How much of that audience is older than 50?



True, but how many of those stations have audiences that are attractive to advertisers? Not counting non-comms of course, maybe 10% of AM and 70% of FM stations, roughly?



Only if you have a radio that will tune those HD channels. I have two at home, but not in my car. And I have no plans to buy an after-market stereo for my car anytime soon, if ever. Nor am I in the market for a car that has it.



Are those radios being developed now? Is the required infrastructure currently being developed and under test? If not, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them. Who's buying radios anyway, at least not that aren't a part of something else, like a car.



Maybe, but a lot of what you're saying can be filed under "pipe dreams." And I'd love to have some of what you're putting in that pipe. :D
Click to expand...


The pipe is empty these days. I have thought about moving to Colorado...

More and more cars come with HD radio. there are actually a few HD only starting to show up in the trends. Yes, only a few, but people are gradually finding their way around the modern, gadget filled cars. They should start off as niche channels until penetration is adequate for more main stream programming. Example - I wonder why there is no personal development channel. Jim Rohn....24 hours a day. You should see what sales pros spend on the cassettes/CDs to condition their minds. There's hundreds of people putting this stuff out there...why not round up a few for a HD format? Deliver it nationally? You get the idea...you will have to create demand for the radios and that won't happen until someone, somewhere starts thinking outside the box.

The automobile radio may be post technology in thirty years but not in my lifetime. It will probably not be used the same as you and I may have used it in the 50-90's but it will still be around in some form or fashion. My parents gathered around the radio every night in their younger years...being born in the 50s I never once "gathered around the radio " for evening entertainment. We watched television and all the radio stars that migrated to the new medium. Go read all the quotes from "experts" that said television would never catch on...

I don't have a crystal ball and I'm not in the consumer electronic development industry. I DO know advertising would be more effective if it were more demo and locality driven. Your radio/internet/audio listening would be a better experience if the ads you heard were specifically for people like you and featured products close by, or on your way to work, school, or home.

If you don't like ads then don't listen to the radio. Buy a MP3 player or pay for satellite radio, or Spotify/Pandora. Unless you're driving 100K a year and most of it is in the middle of no where you're throwing money away with satellite. $15/month for terrible audio quality and Howard Stern's same ol' schtick??!!

I listen to radio for the human interaction. I want to hear other voices and I want to know what they're thinking about. I want to hear ads for products I might want to try. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the marriage of internet and terrestrial radio would make the radio experience better. And as long as it continues to be free it will have listeners.
 
wavo said:
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the marriage of internet and terrestrial radio would make the radio experience better. And as long as it continues to be free it will have listeners.
Click to expand...

It may come as a surprise but Apple has spent a lot of money trying to launch hosted & curated internet radio stations, and they've been a complete failure. No one knows they even exist. I think Apple has realized this is not something they're good at. What Apple does when it finds something like this (such as a certain software or hardware), they buy it. Then they find ways to synergize with it. The recent ad campaign by Amazon selling its Alexa service on FM is an example of how radio can drive users to online services.
 
One might recall that Apple tried to launch channels with live (obviously not local) DJs. That failed. I fully get why the interest and why iHeart's going the direction they are, despite the cries of "but live and local DJs!"
 
Don CT said:
My question is based on the fact that Sat Radio is uncensored with no commercials. Why would they go backwards?
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You’re assuming that buying into commercial radio would be going backwards. A lot of people don’t buy satellite radio, and the business models are different. Plus, Liberty could leverage terrestrial radio and iHeartRadio to make its feature programming more accessible and reach more people. My experiences with the SiriusXM app on desktop PC's has been inconsistent at best and usually lousy. I rarely have issues with iHeart. If SiriusXM content were on iHeartRadio, I'd consider renewing my subscription. (In all fairness, I'm mainly dropping satellite radio because it’s in my wife’s car, and we’re divorcing, but I have little use for it outside of her car.)

As others mention, the above assumes Liberty would think there was some reason to operate the two in tandem and could potentially get others onboard with the idea. It could also simply be happy being involved in another business and revenue stream.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Here is an Update on the Apple/ Iheart talks.
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As I said, one of the reasons Apple bought Beats was to have some impact in the curated streaming business. It was a failure, and most of the people associated with Beats are gone. So it's time to try a different approach. Apple is a technology company. iHeart is an audio content company. It all makes sense.
 
https://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=b15661

An update Liberty wants a controlling stake in Iheart Media.

Denver-based media tycoon John Malone's Liberty Media is seeking to take control of iHeartMedia, which took a major step toward emerging from bankruptcy on Monday reports the New York Post. He wants to combine iHM with his other music properties, which include satellite radio giant SiriusXM as well as concert promoter Live Nation and its Ticketmaster service, insiders told the newspaper.

As previously reported, iHM creditors on Monday approved a reorganization plan that to lower company's massive debt by two-thirds and return it to the public markets in February. Meanwhile, sources tell the Post, Malone's Liberty Media is gearing up for negotiations with iHeartmedia's creditors to assemble a stake of roughly 35 percent in iHM.
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