CEO Bob Pittman has been consistent for years. He wants iHeartMedia to be everywhere listeners are with the products and services they expect. And as of today, iHeart is on over 250 platforms and 2,000 devices.
Pittman, opening up iHeart’s Q2 earnings call Thursday, said “this company has an attractive business model. The audio sector is doing very well and we are the number one audio company by far. And when it comes to consumer reach, iHeart is the number one media company in America.”
He then compared radio to the music collection category (Pandora and Spotify). “Radio provides companionship to consumers while music collections are where people go to escape. iHeart plays on the companionship side while being synergistic with music.”
Pittman then threw out some numbers to compare companionship listening to what he called “me-time” listening. He said 73% of Spotify listening comes from 3% of their audience (a number CEO Daniel EK disputes) and 72% of Pandora listening comes from 5% of their audience, while 75% of iHeart listening comes from 34% of its audience.
Pittman says iHeartMedia is “the only true multi-platform company that has deep relationships with both consumers and advertisers.”
