Ciaran Davis’ strategy for ARN might mean some advertising-free zones

Chris Pash
By Chris Pash | 7 May 2021
 
Thinkstock

HT&E, with its radio network ARN, is taking a cautious look at finding ways to generate revenue other than from advertising.

The company has emerged in robust financial health from the pandemic, with ARN audiences swelling and advertising climbing back.

“At the moment we are obviously 100% advertising funded and that model will always be the mainstay of what we do,” CEO Ciaran Davis told AdNews.

“As more sophisticated content, more targeted, comes through, are there other monetisation opportunities that we could look at?

“We think that over the next two or three to five years, we would like to not have a 100% advertising revenue for all the reasons that we know in terms of the way that the market is moving.

“Subscription is something that we would look at. Perhaps streaming, perhaps podcasting. It's an interesting one for us but it's something that we would like to try, have a look and see what the pros and cons are.”

In the meantime, the advertising market for radio has been picking up.

The month of March was ahead of the same month in 2020.

The current June quarter, compared to the depths of the pandemic last year, is tracking well ahead of 2020 with April up 53% on the same month last year.

“The briefing activity is good and strong and the sentiment for radio is still very, very strong,” says Davis.

“And so as the market continues to recover and confidence comes back, radio is doing well. We're pleased with the way the quarter is tracking.”

iHeartRadio is performing well and HT&E has extended its licence with the US-based broadcast, podcast and streaming radio platform to 2036

“It really is it's time now because of the way digital audio is progressing and being consumed and the, the general acceptance of podcasting as a medium of music streaming,” he says.

“The advantage for us is that it gives us complete control of content and local monetisation, but we've got the backing of a global player who has invested hundreds of millions in the platform.”

Podcasts and streaming are increasingly important. iHeartRadio records 19 million downloads a month.

“The difficulty with podcasts at the moment is there's just so much content out there, to understand what your top five, 10, 15 podcasts are.

“Which is why we have good insight into AI within the iHeart platform. That's exciting to see when that will roll out

“What we're seeing definitely is that people are not switching from radio to podcasting. It's proven to be complimentary. Through iHeart, we can see that people still listen to live radio at the times you would expect -- breakfast and driving peak times -- but podcasting really kicks off in early evenings and weekends.

“One of the things that we're, we're pleased with so far in terms of the education of all CMOs and agencies around when and where, and how to use podcasts has really developed.

“Radio is still a very retail driven call to action and I don't think it'll ever lose that advantage.

“Whereas, podcasts tend to be more brand building. We're not seeing the growth of podcasting taking revenue from radio.

“Our commercial strategy for the last 12 months is about the integration of radio and podcasts and music streaming.About the different creatives involved with different tactics. I can use that.

“The branding, the sponsorship, the messaging is all different.”

HT&E agm strategy slide 2021

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