Internet radio service Pandora has made it onto mobile phones, and increasingly, is finding its way into automobiles – and it’s hoping to use that in-car presence to take a bite out of radio’s most lucrative dayparts.
Listeners have generally been unavailable to Pandora when traveling to and from work, since they are away from their internet connections. But car manufacturers are increasingly making internet applications a built-in feature, opening the space to Pandora.
According to Bloomberg, the service is already luring advertisers with the promise of an expanded footprint. Pandora’s ability to provide the age, gender, ZIP and taste in music of it subscribers allows advertisers the ability to target the people it wants to reach with a fair amount of precision.
RBR-TVBR observation: Radio has turned back interlopers before. There are many things radio can do that other services cannot. The invasion of internet radio into the automobile is just one more argument for strong local programming.
