Telecom

Business-to-business (B2B) media and information industry revenues reached $25.5 billion in 2012, representing 3.4% growth from $24.7 billion in 2011, details the Association of Business Media (ABM) in its latest Business Information Network Report. The industry posted slightly higher revenues in the second half of the year ($13.1 billion) than the first ($12.4 billion), as growth stood at 1.3% overall when adjusted for inflation. While inflation-adjusted revenues have grown for at least a couple of years now, they still haven't recovered to 2008's high of $28.7 billion. Read more »

Customer satisfaction with pay TV providers remains relatively low, although it has increased slightly after remaining flat for 3 consecutive years, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The index for subscription TV services rose a couple of points from last year's 66 to 68 on ASCI's 100-point scale. By comparison, satisfaction with cell phone manufacturers stands at 76, fixed line phone service providers are at 74, and wireless phone service providers are at 72. Among the information sector categories, only Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have a lower score than pay TV services this year, debuting on the index at a score of just 65. Read more »

Americans might be listening to more radio, but radio's advertising revenues aren't going anywhere, at least for the time being. In Q1, total expenditures were flat, at $3.5 billion, according to [pdf] the latest revenue report from the Radio Advertising Bureau, which excludes network radio data due to incomplete information. Healthy growth in digital (9%) and off-air (5%) helped offset a sluggish quarter for spot, which was down 2% from Q1 2012. While remaining the smallest segment, at $179 million in revenues, digital's growth means that it now exceeds 5% share of total radio revenues. Read more »

Socialbakers has released its latest "Socially Devoted" figures for Q1, and the results are a mixed bag. On the one hand, the average response rate grew 6% points quarter-over-quarter to 38%, after only improving by 4% points in the preceding 6 months. But on the other hand, that means that significantly fewer than half of questions posted to brands' Twitter profiles were answered. What's more, the average response time increased by 10%, from 6 hours in Q4 2012 to more than 6-and-a-half hours in Q1. Read more »

The volume of smartphone impressions on the Millennial Media platform is increasing, but not as quickly as impressions from non-phone connected devices, represented primarily by tablets, according to [download page] Millennial Media's latest Mobile Mix report. In Q1, the company reports that non-phone connected devices accounted for 25% of total platform impressions, up from 20% a year earlier. That 5% point gain came entirely at the expense of smartphones, which dropped from 75% to 70% share of impressions. Feature phones, somewhat surprisingly, kept steady at 5%. Read more »

58% of national brand advertising campaigns employed geo-precise targeting (including geo-fencing and geo-behavioral targeting) in Q1, according to a new report from xAd. That's more than double the 27% from a year earlier, as the proportion using standard geo-targeting dropped from 64% to 40%. Still, fewer advertisers used geo-precise targeting in Q1 than in Q4 2012. That's because some campaigns benefit more than others from such targeting, and Q4 saw more campaigns seeking to leverage the benefits of geo-targeting to promote their holiday and Black Friday promotions. Read more »

It's a familiar trend, one that's been seen throughout the beginning of 2013. Smartphone penetration continues to rise, and Apple keeps making inroads, hacking away at Google's leading market share. During the 3-month period ending in March, smartphone penetration reached 58% of the mobile market, up a percentage point from the prior month and almost 30% year-over-year, according to the latest data from comScore. And for the third consecutive time, Google's share of the smartphone market dipped compared to the prior 3-month period, as Apple's grew. Read more »

Global ad spending grew by 3.2% last year, but some sectors fared better than others, details Nielsen in further results released publicly from its Global AdView Pulse report. At the forefront of spending growth were the telecom and FMCG sectors, boosting expenditures by 7% and 6.8%, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, spending by durables brands declined by 2.1%, while healthcare companies cut back slightly, by 0.7%. Read more »

Smartphone penetration climbed to 57% of the US mobile market during the 3-month period ending in February 2013, according to the latest data from comScore MobiLens. That's up close to 4% from the 3-month period ending in January, and more than 28% year-over-year. For the second consecutive month, Google's leading share of the smartphone market dipped, as Apple continued to make gains. Read more »

The Pew Research Center reported in late 2011 that 18-24-year-olds were sending and receiving 3,000 text per month. Well, according to new data [download page] from Experian Marketing Services' Simmons, texting activity is getting even heavier, at least among smartphone owners. 18-24-year-olds from Experian's mobile panel of 1,485 smartphone owners were found to send 2,022 texts per month and receive another 1,831, for a grand total of 3,853. That's almost 130 per day. Read more »