Nova iPhone app is another signal of radio stations’ digital ambitions
Press releases always seem to arrive in waves. These days, one of the most regular is the launch of a media brand’s new iPhone app.
They’re getting so common that they stand about as much chance of being written about as an announcement of a company’s anniversary. (The phone conversation where I explain that there are a lot of companies in media and marketing , and every day of the week several of them will have a birthday of some description, takes place with far more regularity than you’d think.)
So I was about to delete today’s email announcing Nova’s new app.
But then I realised I was missing something that was so obvious I should have thought more about it months ago.
The future growth of all the radio owners actually lies in their online audience. And I don’t mean online listeners.
And they’re already going at it hard.
Take Nielsen Market Intelligence’s assessment of music and radio UBs for April. Of the top five, four are from the radio world:
- MySpace – 115,741
- Today Network – 37,446
- Take 40 – 19,556
- Nova FM – 14,552
- Triple M network – 13,414
Putting MySpace to one side, there’s are some big numbers when it comes to the monthly page impressions these sites produce.
The Today network clocks up an astonishing (and indeed slightly hard to believe) 33m page impressions a month, which by my calculation means about 30 PIs per visit (autorefresh much, Austereo?). Ditto sister network Triple M which pulled in nearly 5m PIs on an average of 10 PI’s per visitor session.
But regardless of potential PI inflation, the point is that these sites are increasingly becoming entertainment brands rather than radio brands, and they’re probably getting to the sorts of audiences that advertisers like to reach.
Which brings me back to Nova’s new app. It’s an events application – as the press release claims:
“The Nova Events application will fast become the one-stop destination for all the information on the latest concerts, comedy tours and music festivals in Australia.
“With a simple swipe, users can browse all the events coming up in their hometown and click through to an event detail screen which provides all the necessary details from start times and ticketing price details through to a map pinpointing the venue location. You can even buy tickets directly from your phone.”
(That last bit about ticket sales is interesting too – I bet there’s a nice little business model in that.)
And take a look at Nova’s home page. There’s video content, there’s entertainment news, there’s music. But the radio element is dramatically downplayed. And very little of that home page content has been generated as a result of what’s been broadcast on air.
Rather than being the home page to find out about the radio station, as it would have been a year or two ago, it’s the place to find out about the things that would interest you as a consumer if you had the sorts of interests that would also make you listen to the radio station. And that’s quite a big change.
It also puts Lachlan Murdoch’s purchase of 50% of DMG Radio into perspective. He’s not so much bought a stake in a sunset industry, as an entree into an entertainment brand that’s going to be powerful online, and increasingly so as online video grows.
It just so happens that the radio offers an excellent means to drive users to the website.
It’s only just beginning to happen in a serious way, but I reckon it’s going to be a serious trend.
Tim Burrowes
Linkedin
Mumbrella articles: No more than two Apps in a row though please Tim
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oh actually, it’s fine.. as many as you like
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Sorry if this is a really dumb question, but how do these radio numbers sit with these you quoted on April 12?
MySpace Music has quickly grabbed a stranglehold on this category since its launch late last year.
1. MySpace Music – Monthly UBs 1,971,151; Monthly PIs 17,013,727
2. Today Network – UBs 823,959; PIs 42,277,927
3. take40.com – UBs 400,667; PIs 2,116,848
4. novafm.com.au – UBs 323,045; PIs 3,931,225
5. TripleM Network – UBs 299,976; PIs 5,976,538
6. inthemix.com.au – UBs252,786; PIs 4,147,703 (audited)
https://mumbrella.com.au/state-of-the-web-australias-online-traffic-22673
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if you’re going to run 2Day as a network then maybe run the others as networks too – ie Sound Alliance, DMG, MCM etc.
Let’s also look at session duration.
Let’s also see which have passed audit …
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Hi Confused,
Thanks for your question. The numbers I quoted today were daily UBs rather than the monthly UBs that were mentioned in the previous article.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
And Ben,
(Hope you’re enjoying the honeymoon, btw)
That’s a fair question, although I guess the visitors are landing on a common brand – whatever city they’re in they’re interacting with Nova, for instance.
It’s certainly an argument that when considering ad network reach, that’s worth a look (I don’t think it’s currently available in that format on Nielsen Market Intelligence, is it?). But if so, I guess you’d then also consolidate the Today Network and Triple M into one number as well, wouldn’t you?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Ben – I trust Mrs Shepherd doesn’t realise you are focussing on session durations in the middle of your honeymoon?
Actually, come to think of it, perhaps she hopes you are…
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great diagnosis of today’s radio landscape, they are growing into media brands.
what is also interesting is your comment on radio’s growth coming from online audiences and not online listeners…
the fact that these sites are content rich and low on radio content would suggest they are indexing well and servicing a non radio audience online – effectively increasing their reach!
Austereo’s numbers seem a little dubious… but
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the summary of this page says there are 8 comments but only 2 from Dazza appear – what happened to the other 6?
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Hi Ruby,
I can see nine comments including yours (ten including this). Could you try refreshing the page?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I think it amazing how Nova is remodelling itself as triple J. It started off with the playlists, Nova mimicking triple J’s with about a one week delay, and then simpliar shows/personalities appearing and now we are seeing this app.
The Nova app ‘gives you access to all the latest gigs, concerts and maps on how to get there’ which is something that triple J has been doing for years with their online ‘Gig Guide’ .
Triple J has had a weekly feature album for as long I can remember and now I hear Nova is toting a Tame Impala album as its “Album of the week”, and now its rumored that Nova is going to do a show once a week with live recordings that they have done, a direct copy of Triple J’s ‘live at the wireless’
Where will it stop? or will Nova just keep going until it is impossible to tell the two stations apart?
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Stu – when Nova began they tried the same angle of being JJJ-lite … over time it steadily morphed into a 2Day/Fox like format but with a little less cheese … now it’s heading back into ‘music’ territory.
Either way neither seem like a massive point of difference.
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