‘You’ve got to continually invest – we don’t have that problem’: ARN chief reveals why the network has ‘taken the licensing path’ with iHeart
August 23, 2024 9:06
ARN has invested heavily in digital audio over the past few years, and is “now starting to see the fruits of our labour”, according to chief and managing director, Ciaran Davis.
The company’s half-yearly results certainly show this: ARN’s digital audio revenues reached are up by 26% from the first half of 2023 to $11 million, with iHeartRadio netting 2.8 million registered users.
“We spent a lot of time, and effort, and investment in digital audio,” Davis tells Mumbrella. “We knew it was coming for the last couple of years.”
There is a lot to be said about radio. It has maintained its 7.9%-8.0% advertising share since 2016. and sits comfortably at best reach of the mass mediums. Whereas FTA has fallen from the 88% (7&9 -but c82% for TEN) over the past decades to c70% the radio reach of 98% in Metro markets, and much less ( c48%) in regional markets is still phenomenal at c80% . Outdoor at current 15% of ad spend is essentially over indexed for the nature of that medium. Possibly because the media buyers are such trendy young things that from their inner city abodes, that’s all that they intake of media traditional media . Of the 5 criteria that count in communicating with an audience (Video, sound/a score, talk, emotion, story) FTA still scores all of them . Just think of the “I feel like a Toohey’s” ads. Radio gets 4 of these – Sound, talk, emotion, and story, Outdoor gets one – a static billboard.
A!N should be , as should SXL, viewed as a quality media asset. .