After announcing the company’s intention to do so last year, iHeartMedia has officially launched its auction-style programmatic marketplace. Using sell-side advertising firm Magnite’s SpringServe technology, clients can make omnichannel media purchases.
The data-driven, real-time bidding platform sells impressions across iHeart’s broadcast, streaming, and podcast assets. iHeart’s initial announcement raised murmurs of both curiosity and dissent across the industry, as sinking ad rates and high hourly inventory remain a sore subject for many.
iHeart is not the first broadcast giant to undertake a one-stop-shop programmatic plan of this genre – NBCUniversal has been running a similar omnichannel marketplace since 2022.
iHeartMedia Chief Data Officer and President of Revenue Strategies Brian Kaminsky said, “With today’s consumers spending a third of their media time with audio, expanding programmatic’s access to iHeart’s audio assets is imperative for the industry. Not only are we expanding what role programmatic can play for advertisers, we are also improving the efficacy of their campaigns by allowing them to use real-time data to message their audience in the most engaging way possible, in an environment of trust and interest.”
Magnite Chief Revenue Officer Sean Buckley said, “Establishing more direct connections within the advertising supply chain benefits both publishers and buyers and we’re proud to build technology to facilitate this for the largest media owners in the world like iHeartMedia. We’ve worked closely with iHeartMedia to develop bespoke and new-to-market solutions for podcast and audio. Consolidated paths will continue to gain momentum and we look forward to continuing to pave the way in this effort.”
