Southern Cross Austereo has slammed its rivals for being "dinosaurs" as it unveiled a Shazamable radio show that integrates a second screen wth radio content, a move designed to bring eyeballs as well as ears to the network.
Today Network head Dave Cameron told AdNews the show makes its “competitor night shows look like dinosaurs” and it is “just the first step” in re-engaging its digital audience.
The Shazam Top 20 will be broadcast nationally across the Today network at 7pm on week nights from next M20 October, and will be hosted by Angus O'Loughlin and Ash London.
While it takes its format from the traditional Top 20 chart, the key point of difference for the show is it will tally the top 20 “Shazamed” songs in Australia from the preceeding 24 hour period.
It will also introduce SCA listeners to a second screen with live content and advertising being pushed through the Shazam app during the show's broadcast.
Shazam regional sales director Steve Sos told AdNews the app is a “natural second screen for radio, given we're capitalising on a behaviour that was already there.” From Shazam's point of view the partnership is a futher extension of its capability as it moves away from pure music identification and further into advertising and engagement.
Sos added that while advertising will be in the pipeline using Shazam's technology, it hasn't gone to market before the launch in order to let the program settle.
Cameron described it as a show you can listen to, particpate in and “actually watch on your mobile device as well.”
“This is a radio show that is completely built around smartphone technology. The way people interact with this show, listen to it, and get extra content - it's all smartphone driven,” he said.
The announcement of SCA's further push into digital follows Nielsen’s September Market Intelligence report which found that SCA recorded its highest ever volume of average daily unique browsers over September. It recorded an increase of 126% year-on-year which, SCA claims represents “growth three times faster than the rest of the market.”
SCA claims it is “Australia’s most mobile-optimised online publisher” with more than 77% of its daily traffic on pocket mobile devices alone."
The network's investment into digital was outlined as part of it's annual result meeting which saw a $296 million loss on write-downs to it's regional businesses this year.
Last month SCA announced an on-demand Coldplay concert would be avaliable through its digital assets following its live-stream of the event.
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