During the Deutsch Bank conference call Tuesday, iHeart COO Richard Bressler said there were three factors taking place that have put radio in a stronger position with advertisers. Podcasting was at the top of his list.
Bressler said podcasting, smart speakers and the challenges television is facing have helped put a little wind at radio’s back. Here’s how Bressler detailed those three factors.
“#1. Podcasting. Every one of our 60,000 advertisers wants to talk about podcasting. It’s raised the specter of audio and the effectiveness of audio.
#2. Smart Speakers. AM/FM Radio is the number one use on smart speakers. It’s really brought radio back in the home.
#3. The decline of linear television because of all the streaming services.”
Bressler says a combination of those three factors has gotten advertisers to look more at radio.
Too bad it is, Robert, that most local radio outlets still qualify as “junk media” – not worthy of regular or continuous listening.
These represent outrageous examples of radio missing its own opportunities.
The second and third points that Bressler makes — the growing [in-home] adoption of smart speakers, along with the decline of traditional, linear TV viewership, on the networks’ timetable — should absolutely give rise to more ad dollars going to local broadcast radio.
Speaking personally, both of those conditions apply to me, and to many, many people I know. I have a smart speaker, and 90% of my listenership to that device is of broadcast radio stations. And, my TV viewership has dropped to practically nothing. Indeed, a few years back, I ‘cut the cord’ on cable TV. Many of us can no longer justify or rationalize the ever-increasing expense of monthly cable TV bills, when most of us only watch a handful of the same channels, and not the other dozens or hundreds of channels that cable companies force us to pay for. The big, legacy cable TV companies better move quickly to ‘a la carte’ programming options for subscribers, or they will lose to the streamers like Netflix, Hulu, etc.
Smart owner-operators will work diligently to convey the message to (potential) advertiser clients that local radio stations are the most effective way to reach local consumers and clients. Newspapers are dying. TV, both broadcast and cable, as I mentioned, is declining. Audio streaming services, like Pandora and Spotify, are not local. So, guess what advertising medium that leaves for best reaching and serving listeners — read, again, ‘customers’ and ‘clients’ — in your local, hometown community? Broadcast radio.