Radio will succeed – or fail – in the connected car based on whether it works together as a unified industry, NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said as the NAB Show 2023 officially got underway Monday in Las Vegas. “We are now in fierce competition for real estate in the dashboard,” from the likes of SiriusXM, Apple Music, Spotify and others, LeGeyt said in a fireside chat with Gabriela Teissier, news anchor at Univision’s “Noticias 34” KMEX-DTV in Los Angeles.
One big challenge is that each of these deep-pocketed audio competitors is a single company. Local radio stations, on the other hand, are owned by more than 1,000 groups. “If we’re not all rowing in the same direction as an industry and focused on what is that accessibility going to be like in the car, where’s our placement going to be, and what is the user going to see when they flip through our dial, we’re going to lose this arms race,” LeGeyt cautioned.
NAB has taken a leadership role on the issue, LeGeyt said, with board members forming a committee to educate members about new innovations in the connected car.
