|
August 14, 2023
VMS (www.vmsinfo.com) has deployed a new, proprietary digital monitoring network—incorporating advanced speech-to-text technology—to capture over 10,000 hours per week of FM and AM radio programming from key markets across the country. This will supplement the live radio monitoring coverage VMS currently delivers to its clients. The service will be delivered as part of the company's standard product offerings and is available immediately.
This extensive digital network will be leveraged across VMS' other key business units, capturing radio commercials for delivery through VMS AdSight platform, and additional news content for its Professional Services editorial analysis offerings including InSight.
"Our customers already receive the industry's most complete television news monitoring coverage—spanning all 210 U.S. markets," noted Peter Wengryn, president and chief executive officer of VMS. "They asked us for more extensive radio monitoring - more markets and more hours—and we've delivered."
Is there any sudden reason for the interest in radio monitoring? Is it because PR have ignored radio coverage for too long? Is it because the Imus scandal put radio back on the map? Is it because the technology has just been perfected?
Not at all, says Wengryn. "We just want to be as comprehensive as we can. We've increased our coverage of TV, Internet and blogs. This is part of our RealTime push. We have acquired the speech-to-text technology, and our clients want this service," he says. "There is a bigger meaning behind it—it's our goal to be comprehensive so clients can consider us a one-stop shop. We are now in the process of acquiring more content, radio being just one [genre]. The drumbeat continues for VMS and providing access to even more coverage is our strategy."
In June, VMS announced the availability of RealTime, which allows users to search, track and view streaming broadcast video and closed-caption transcripts within minutes of airing from all 210 Designated Market Areas (DMAs)—the only product in the marketplace with this comprehensive coverage. In the near future, taking advantage of its newly deployed radio monitoring network, VMS will expand the RealTime product to include over 10,000 hours of real-time radio coverage.
This concentrated and coordinated activity is part of VMS' Integrated Media Intelligence strategic platform development initiative This product rollout, the introduction of RealTime, enhancements to the InSight product scheduled for this fall, and the introduction in late 2006 of AdSight—the company's competitive ad intelligence solution—were all part of Phase I. Phase II begins later this year with the introduction of a series of products comprising key management dashboards focused on editorial content and quantitative analytics. |