The dismal decade behind SCA’s radical end-of-year shakeup; Nine locks in NRL
Welcome to Unmade, written in the chilly, Covidy UK, while you were sleeping on Wednesday morning.
Today’s writing soundtrack: Random Access Memories, from Daft Punk.
It’s National Haiku
Poetry Day. Celebrate
FR0GOT ABOUT SEN HAVE YOU
Hi Jason,
Thanks for the question.
I did mention in. the piece: “And for the purpose of this analysis, I stuck with the FM commercial players.”
That’s why none of the AM players appear in the graphs. I didn’t, erm, fr0got them.
Cheers,
Tim
I’d be interested in a look at how SCA’S LISTNR app is performing. I know it’s probably a growth area for them so they aren’t needing massive numbers off the bat. The app itself seems fine I suppose. And from what I can tell The Ashes Cricket is being streamed on it. Exclusively or not I do not know.
I installed the LISTNR app but haven’t used it to listen to anything yet. I listened to a few Mark Pesce docu-podcasts in LISTNR’s previous iteration as Podcast One Australia. But have yet to listen to a podcast or live stream on LISTNR in its current iteration. But I do note how confusing it is as a name for radio presenters to recommend users to download. They are always having to spell it out.
I also wonder how much cut through Steve Price would be getting. As I’d imagine he’d have an older audience. Would they know how to install the LISTNR app? Is there smart speaker integration?
Just off topic for a bit but the AFL’s (Australian Football League) smart speaker strategy is pretty average. Everything is locked up on the Telstra operated official AFL app. The digital rights are exclusive to that app. And you can’t listen on smart speakers like Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple’s HomePod or Sonos. Unless something has changed recently. So I’m forced to listen from my phone speakers. Hopefully they fix this in the new year.
Back to LISTNR. It doesn’t seem they have the download numbers to make their podcasts exclusive on their owned platform as you can get most of their podcasts on other platforms. As it should be in my opinion. But apps like Spotify have podcast exclusives. I listen to most of my podcasts on the ex-Australian made and owned Pocket Casts which is now owned by American Public Radio.
As for SCA’s Triple M I have completely stopped listening in the morning when they wound up the Hot Breakfast with Eddie McGuire. Marty Sheargold just does not appeal to me. I’ve started listening to 3AW’s Ross and Russ. Russell Howcroft is excellent. Love the 7am Rumour File. Just wish 3AW & 2GB also hadn’t removed the simulcast of their stream from TuneIn Radio, which is the biggest app of its kind in the world. It’s still on the Australian radio industry run RadioApp and the lesser know MyTunerRadio. But TuneIn Radio integrates with nearly every audio platform. Short sighted in my eyes. Are they trying to drive everyone to the 3AW/2GB apps? I also noticed they are enforcing mandatory sign in for their owned apps while collecting age data presumably for their advertising capabilities. 3AW & 2GB have basically no integrations with smart speakers and third party audio platforms.
Keep up the great work Tim. I admire your work ethic. Have a happy Christmas. Look forward to continuing to receive you in my inbox and read and listen to your output into 2022. I finished reading Media Unmade a few weeks ago and left reviews on the Amazon Kindle Store and Goodreads.