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Surprises

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Jul 19th 2004 12:38pm





Clear Channel Cuts Commercials To Just Most Of The Time, Instead Of All

from the phew dept

I tend not to listen to very much radio at all, but when I do flip around the dial, it does seem like commercial radio these days is pretty much all commercials, all the time. Well, it looks like Clear Channel is starting to realize that while they may own all the radio stations out there, they're facing competition from satellite and internet radio (as well as people listening to their own music via CD players and digital music players). So, today, they've made a big splash by announcing that all of their radio stations will now have fewer commercials -- though, they don't say by how much. Of course, if you read between the lines, the announcement is also stating (though, not explicitly) that in doing so, Clear Channel is also going to raise advertising fees. They're trying to limit supply to push up the price, but this is coded as: "more effective opportunities and value for their advertising dollar."

2 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Clear Channel and Commercials

    identicon
    Tom Green, Jul 19th, 2004 @ 2:06pm

    Yes, but they also said this would not go into effect until after January...that's six months from now? GEEZ

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Some numbers

    identicon
    Doug, Jul 19th, 2004 @ 2:07pm

    From a NY Times article (reprinted here):
    Mr. Hogan of Clear Channel Radio, which is a unit of Clear Channel Communications, said the company's new ceilings on ads, while national in scope, would vary according to format and time of day.

    For example, during the morning drive, Clear Channel's country-music stations will broadcast no more than 12 minutes of commercials an hour, take no more than 4 minutes for any single commercial break and pack no more than six commercials into a break.

    Such stations have been playing 18 minutes to 24 minutes of ads during the morning drive, Mr. Hogan said.

    and
    Joel Hollander, president and chief operating officer at the Infinity Broadcasting unit of Viacom Inc., said ... that Infinity had placed new limits on certain stations since his arrival last summer. At KILT-FM, a country-music station in Houston, for example, commercial time was reduced to 12 minutes each hour from about 15 minutes or 16 minutes. "We've seen positive results," he said, citing higher ad prices and stronger ratings.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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