Jacobs Media's latest Technology Poll shows that cell phone usage not only dominates American culture, but that it's considered primarily as a communication device and not an entertainment device. Yes, an obvious conclusion, but interesting to see the numbers...

 

Note where "Listening to MP3s" places in comparison to all the other mobile phone features. This doesn't necessarily indicate consumer's desire to listen to music over the cellphones - just what they are currently using on their cellphones.

What might that mean? That the experience of mobile audio just isn't satisfactory yet. A recent Arbitron study indicated that mobile audio is a massive growth opportunity for broadcasters, and it most likely is.

But right now, the over-the-air mobile audio experience, well... sucks. The interfaces are awkward, you need to know what you want before you can listen to it, and it's more difficult than it's worth. Especially when there's an alternative sitting next to you that you already spent $400 on (yes, the iPod). There's a growth opportunity here alright, and that's in streamlining the experience. (Side note: I really really hope that XM is trying their darnedest to utilize their relationship with Cingular to get XM Radio Mobile into the iPhone.)

Now here's another bit of data that is unsurprising:

 

Given the choice of TV, the Internet, Cell Phones or FM Radio, which do you think most people could live without? FM Radio is the obvious loser in that equation. But consider why?

Gone are the days of radio as the sole purveyor of information to the masses - an argument that preserving terrestrial's monopoly on "localism" is not in the public interest. Or maybe more accurately, the "localism" argument is a moot one, since most radio isn't even "local" at all (and therefore, not a necessity to consumers anymore).

[Jacobs Media Tech Survey III] 

Arbitron and research provider Telephia have released a new study on the mobile audio market - that is audio entertainment provided for mobile phone users - and found that it is a major growth opportunity for terrestrial radio providers.

According to the study, 6% of mobile phone subscribers have used one or more audio features in the last 30 days. Over-the-air song downloading has the largest awareness, followed by subscription-based streaming radio and FM radio reception on cell phones.

Interestingly, the majority of these mobile audio users believe that commercials "are a fair price to pay" for free content on their phones. Over 75% of those surveyed who download content to their phones and listen to FM radio agreed they would be open to commercials.

Do you think terrestrial radio programmers are looking closely at this market? You bet they are.

"Most current mobile audio users prefer the ad-supported model over paying a subscription fee. And this group is a very attractive demographic for advertisers to target as it’s comprised mainly of affluent, tech-savvy early adopters." said Wayman Leung, senior product manager for Telephia.

"For broadcasters looking to expand their platforms beyond terrestrial radio, mobile audio represents an untapped marketplace that they can exploit in partnership with mobile phone networks,” said Neal Bonner, Arbitron product development manager. "Radio broadcasters are uniquely positioned to deliver programming for these promising new audio services."

So, when a major terrestrial radio company like Clear Channel, partners with mSpot - a mobile audio provider with over 1 million subscribers - do you think that constitutes a "nationwide multichannel mobile audio service"? You bet it does.

[FMQB]
[Download The Mobile Audio Media Study (PDF)]