EE204: Business Management for
Electrical Engineers and Computer Scientists


EE204 Spring, 2011 -- Waiting list

Finding a partner model with Broadcasters at TuneIn.com

Read

  1. Read: Product/Market Fit
  2. Read: CaseWiki Instructions
  3. Review Tunein web site
  4. Review Radiotime website

CaseWiki

The objective of the CaseWiki is for students to experience the process of structuring and researching a case related to a current business problem and participate in a conversation involving real-time issues facing corporations. Complete instructions are available on the CaseWiki Instructions page.

Case Summary

TuneIn radio former known as RadioTime is a global guide to what’s playing now on radio. According to Bill Moore, founder of RadioTime/TuneIn, TuneIn is the future of radio. Listen to thousands of your favorite FM & AM stations and programs, at home or on the go, with a single application. The TuneIn app on mobile devices often ranks in the top 5 music apps and is often mentioned as the radio alternative to Pandora. TuneIn’s goal is to bring radio to any connected device from phones to cars, TVs, and clock radios. TuneIn success depends first and foremost on having the broadest and most accurate listings of what’s playing now on the radio stations around the world. This guide is the foundation of TuneIn’s strategic objective of delivering the best listening experience for its listeners on any connected device. Ideally the listener can find any station, easily start listening and save as a preset. They may also want to search by artist or location and save a broadcast for later listening.

 Access to this content is controlled by the broadcasters. Occasionally TuneIn gets requests from broadcasters to remove their stations from the guide. TuneIn complies but each loss weakens the guide. Broadcasters ask to be delisted because they want to maintain control of their listeners, and maximize revenues. Management is focusing on developing a business model that can be a value add for broadcasters and make them partners.

According to the company their are three central elements to partnering with broadcasters

  1. Respect for the content ownership rights
  2. Providing incremental revenue opportunities
  3. Maintaining broadcaster brand

Management of TuneIn is trying to decide how to use it's listener base, guide, apps, and device partners including automotive to meet these broadcaster needs and become the dominant player in internet radio listening

Discussion Questions

  1. What business is TuneIn in? Who are the customers for TuneIn?
  2. What is the overall market environment for products and services like TuneIn?
  3. Is the TiuneIn's success leverageable?
  4. Who are TuneIn's competitors? What are their respective business models?
  5. What are the competitive forces operating in this business ecosystem?
  6. How do you evaluate the revenue experiments which they have been running to date?
  7. Are there alternative revenue and profit opportunities which are available to TuneIn?
  8. Should TuneIn raise venture capital? Which business model will be most attractive to investors?