Xperi’s efforts to maximize, personalize, and monetize in-car entertainment were laid out Tuesday in a webinar entitled “The Future of Content-First Entertainment in the Car,” which reviewed features of its DTS AutoStage platform, currently installed in 7 million cars worldwide.
“[Consumers] really don’t care what system delivers the content [they] want to experience, but what [they] care about is relevant content,” Xperi General Manager, Connected Car Jeff Jury said, “so our system is designed with the ability to find more relevant content, discover it, and improve the overall experience in the car.”
Radio is, of course, crucial to the in-car experience, and the medium has presented Xperi with many challenges. “Radio is very different from TV or digital audio services in that it’s incredibly dynamic and very much unscripted,” Senior VP Broadcast Radio and Digital Audio Joe D’Angelo says. “It can turn on a moment’s notice and go from a song to breaking news to a traffic event to a political story, and that dynamic nature of radio makes it very challenging to recommend content. You need to be deeply engaged with the radio broadcasters as they’re creating their content, so that you can surface it in a meaningful way to the audiences. And that’s really what we do.”
As a result, D’Angelo says, “What we have done with DTS AutoStage is bring order to the chaos of broadcast radio. We make discovery more modern, more manageable, and more engaging for the audience. We provide thumbnail information about what’s actually playing on radio stations, so now you’ll not only be able to see what stations are available, but what they’re actually broadcasting at any point in time. If someone’s in a news break, you can see that on the screen and tune right to them, to cut through the clutter and truly make radio a content-first user experience.”
Content monetization on DTS AutoStage can take many forms, says Xperi Senior VP of Engineering, Automotive Connected Media Bob Dillon. “There are a lot of touch points that we have with the consumer, and in that context, we can drive monetization opportunities… [WE] can match content with consumers for the purpose of their enjoyment, but also content owners with new products to those users.”
Dillon cites one example using pop radio staple Dua Lipa. “[If] her entry [on screen] is tagged as being sponsored, [it] could be Dua Lipa has a new release, and the label wants to promote it. We have some understanding of this user, so the label can pay for placement with a consumer that’s likely to be a customer for Dua Lipa, and to the consumer it’s a contextually relevant advertisement. So we’re matching content with consumers, and there’s a transaction [where] we can provide money to the ecosystem.”
