Listening trend: Analog Radio Up, HD Radio Down

[Carmine5]

According to Bridge Ratings media usage report for December (under "Intent to Listen"), overall terrestrial radio listening is up while HD Radio listening is down (survey sample: 3,000 people, all age 13+).

http://www.bridgeratings.com/press....gn=ffab07927e-TRI_12-15-2009&utm_medium=email

One cause as cited in the report is:

"Poor broadcast content" remains the number one most mentioned reason, referring to the lack of programming options that appeal to these users of HD radio. Traditional radio devoted significant dollars to marketing and building their HD offerings since 2006, but clearly the potential audience does not find most of the programming options to be worthy of HD radio adoption or high time-spent-listening."

Meanwhile, Ibiquity is crowing that CNet has rated the HD Zune as #1 in the top 10 most popular MP3 gadgets for 2009.

http://hdradiodiscoverit.com/the_buzz.php?thebuzz=403

http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-6490_7-10001977-1.html?s=0&o=10001977&tag=mncol;thum

Too bad consumers haven't gotten the word that CNet loves this product. According to cliczune, the Zune still holds only a 4% market share compared to the iPod's 71%. Average sales for iPods is 250,000 per day.

It's probably safe to say that the iPod Touch with good old analog FM will do more to grow radio listening among younger demos than a Zune will--even with HD Radio.

c5

 

[ercjncpr]

Best Buy is doing a better job of marketing their HD portable than Zune could ever hope to do

 

[Savage]

Yep. Best Buy was so encouraged by the sale of the first 5000 Insignia portables, they bet the farm by ordering ANOTHER five thousand pieces. (Nationally.) Break out the champagne!

I understand iBiquity is so excited about HD Radio sales, that sometime in 2010 they hope to abandon their practice of placing a push-pin in each location on a USA map where there is currently an HD receiver - which has NOT been returned to the store as "defective."

(Now Carmine, you've got to watch yourself. Now that you've publicly pointed out another ominous trend for "the former hybrid system they used to call HD Radio" you're susceptible to insults, mean-spirited attacks on your veracity, questioning of your motives and comparisons with Swedish car manufacturers about to become extinct. If you start to win your argument with logic and irrefutable fact, your attacker could use outrageous and personal invective to get the thread tossed to TIO. Of course you could hide behind some ersatz ethnic heritage so, when all else fails, you can try to play the race card....)

 

[Carmine5]

Yep. Best Buy was so encouraged by the sale of the first 5000 Insignia portables, they bet the farm by ordering ANOTHER five thousand pieces. (Nationally.) Break out the champagne!

I understand iBiquity is so excited about HD Radio sales, that sometime in 2010 they hope to abandon their practice of placing a push-pin in each location on a USA map where there is currently an HD receiver - which has NOT been returned to the store as "defective."

(Now Carmine, you've got to watch yourself. Now that you've publicly pointed out another ominous trend for "the former hybrid system they used to call HD Radio" you're susceptible to insults, mean-spirited attacks on your veracity, questioning of your motives and comparisons with Swedish car manufacturers about to become extinct. If you start to win your argument with logic and irrefutable fact, your attacker could use outrageous and personal invective to get the thread tossed to TIO. Of course you could hide behind some ersatz ethnic heritage so, when all else fails, you can try to play the race card....)

Are you counting the Insignias Bob Struble is personally spray painting fire engine red for Eric Rhoads? (Normally he'd have one of his minions do this but I think all the minions at iBiquity have been fired).

Hopefully Best Buy is doing a better job marketing the Insignia portable then they're doing with the HD Zune according to this Zune-head's experience:

http://www.geek.com/articles/gadget...se-experience-and-first-impressions-20090915/

But I kinda doubt it. Thumbing through the Best Buy Sunday supplement catalog this weekend I only saw one HD Radio advertised, a JVC in-dash receiver. The Insignia portable was not listed.

Mr. Savage you are too much! As long as he doesn't question my manhood I think I'll be OK (I can even endure a Glenn Beck comparison).

c5

 

[davideduardo]

It's probably safe to say that the iPod Touch with good old analog FM will do more to grow radio listening among younger demos than a Zune will--even with HD Radio.

Yeah, all those millions of iPods with no AM in them!

As to Zune, some of us remember when Netscape had virtually 100% of the browser market. I'm waiting to see what share Symantec retains of the antivirus market, too.

 

[BRNout]

It's probably safe to say that the iPod Touch with good old analog FM will do more to grow radio listening among younger demos than a Zune will--even with HD Radio.

Yeah, all those millions of iPods with no AM in them!

As to Zune, some of us remember when Netscape had virtually 100% of the browser market. I'm waiting to see what share Symantec retains of the antivirus market, too.

Your analogy of the Zune as being some sort of upstart that will knock the iPod off its throne, just as IE did to Netscape doesn't quite fit. You may recall that everyone was buying Windows operating systems and - when MS came out with IE - it was automatically loaded in with the software. Thus, anyone who bought a new PC ended up with IE. Most didn't bother going to the trouble of downloading Netscape, which eventually resulted in an antitrust lawsuit IIRC. In other words, you had to (and still have to) seek out Netscape to download the browser. With so many other browsers out there that are far superior to Netscape's product, that's not happening much anymore.

The Zune is nothing like that. We have iPods, iPhones and an entire culture of downloads and apps dedicated to them. Nothing about the Zune is revolutionary, nor compelling enough to cause broad swaths of the public to toss their iPods and to discard all of those iTunes in favor of the successor to a very mediocre competitor. You can be certain that HD radio won't cause such a groundswell because - by and large - nobody gives a damn about it. Basically just radio geeks like us - that's it. And, I'll stick with the $50 portable for my HD experimentations.

 

[davideduardo]

Your analogy of the Zune as being some sort of upstart that will knock the iPod off its throne, just as IE did to Netscape doesn't quite fit.

That's right... and the superior Betamax beat out that crummy VHS, too.

 

[Carmine5]

It's probably safe to say that the iPod Touch with good old analog FM will do more to grow radio listening among younger demos than a Zune will--even with HD Radio.

Yeah, all those millions of iPods with no AM in them!

As to Zune, some of us remember when Netscape had virtually 100% of the browser market. I'm waiting to see what share Symantec retains of the antivirus market, too.

Your analogy of the Zune as being some sort of upstart that will knock the iPod off its throne, just as IE did to Netscape doesn't quite fit. You may recall that everyone was buying Windows operating systems and - when MS came out with IE - it was automatically loaded in with the software. Thus, anyone who bought a new PC ended up with IE. Most didn't bother going to the trouble of downloading Netscape, which eventually resulted in an antitrust lawsuit IIRC. In other words, you had to (and still have to) seek out Netscape to download the browser. With so many other browsers out there that are far superior to Netscape's product, that's not happening much anymore.

The Zune is nothing like that. We have iPods, iPhones and an entire culture of downloads and apps dedicated to them. Nothing about the Zune is revolutionary, nor compelling enough to cause broad swaths of the public to toss their iPods and to discard all of those iTunes in favor of the successor to a very mediocre competitor. You can be certain that HD radio won't cause such a groundswell because - by and large - nobody gives a damn about it. Basically just radio geeks like us - that's it. And, I'll stick with the $50 portable for my HD experimentations.

I meant to reference the iPod Nano, not iPod Touch (which has the Broadcom chip but needs software to unlock the radio in it).

Having played with the HD Zune at a Best Buy, I have to say that it isn't a bad product. The interface is easy to navigate and the radio section is decent. The HD locks fairly well. But in the media player wars, it's game over and Apple won.

If I were Microsoft I'd abandon the Zune and focus those resources on trying to improve Windows Mobile and keep its market share from shrinking.

c5

 

[BRNout]

Your analogy of the Zune as being some sort of upstart that will knock the iPod off its throne, just as IE did to Netscape doesn't quite fit.

That's right... and the superior Betamax beat out that crummy VHS, too.

Another bad analogy David. You just mailed that one in. Please try to make some effort while spinning these.

Nobody thinks that Zune is better than the iPod, even Seth McFarlane made fun of the Zune in an episode of Family Guy. It's one step above being a laughing stock; a "me too" type of product. Including an HD radio (FM only, of course) in these things will do nothing for the sales of the Zune nor will it help HD radio gain any acceptance. At this point, it's basically one loser embracing another.

Now, if HD chipsets showed up in iPods and/or iPhones - that would be different.