Headlines
Radio shows surprising resilience in changing media world
It’s a familiar refrain: “Legacy media is dead” — unless you’re talking about radio.
Bankruptcy Reorganization Raises New Questions About What’s Next For Audacy.
Two days after radio’s second-largest group made its long expected bankruptcy move designed to address its debt, analysts say there are already some answers about Audacy’s future, as well as some remaining questions, including whether there will be longer-term management and board changes.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Saga’s ‘WISE’ Choice: A Non-Essential Asset Sale
It is a Canton, N.C.-based AM radio station that has been a part of Saga Communications‘ Asheville Radio Group since 2003 and is presently paired with a FM translator allowing the cluster to serve Asheville, Tenn., with a Sports Talk format originating from another Saga AM.
Television
NBCU launches One Platform Total Audience, bridging linear and streaming
NBCUniversal on Monday announced the full-scale launch of its One Platform Total Audience planning and activation platform that promises advertisers unduplicated reach through a single media buy across streaming and linear.
Radio
Ad Report: Eight In 10 Marketers Plan To Up Or Maintain Radio Spend This Year
Results of a survey of nearly 1,100 marketing and advertising executives – representing brands, agencies, media companies, measurement firms, tech platforms, and other marketing industry constituents – show that 78% expect to increase or maintain their spend on radio/audio in 2024. That's up from 76% for 2023, while the decrease-spend slice of the pie shrunk from 24 to 22%.
AM/FM Nets March Madness Advertising Reach and Frequency
With 20 million people reached by Westwood One’s AM/FM college basketball coverage each season, new research highlights distinct differences between audiences for NCAA tournament games on TV and radio, with big implications for March Madness advertising effectiveness.
CTV/OTT
A Streaming Measurement Advancement from iSpot
A television audience measurement company focused on digital delivery of video content and consumer consumption metrics has launched a dedicated streaming measurement offering, along with a new set of metrics that it claims “empower hundreds of advertisers and publishers with a fast, reliable independent system for tracking audience consumption of Connected TV advertising, at scale.”
FCC
FCC Hikes Indecency Fines To $4.6 Million, Pirates Fines Rise To $2.4 Million
Operating a pirate station is about to get even riskier as the Federal Communications Commission implements its annual inflation adjustment to its list of potential fines.
Tech
Fox Releases Verify, An Open-Source AI Content Solution
Fox Corp. has unveiled Verify, a technical protocol available on an open-source basis that lets media companies register their content and grant usage rights to AI platforms along with enabling consumers to verify content authenticity.
Magnite Fires Up Omnichannel Sales For iHeart
It’s something championed and pioneered on the TV side of the linear media business by NBCUniversal. Now, iHeartMedia is taking a similar approach to giving advertisers a single entry point for audio ad placement on its terrestrial radio, streaming, and podcast platforms — ushering in an omnichannel programmatic media buying opportunity for marketers.