Katz Radio Group has acquired Net Radio Sales, a major streaming audio ad sales company, from Aritaur Communications. The acquisition represents Katz Radio Group's most significant investment in digital media and will offer advertisers expanded opportunities to reach their audience across multiple audio and web-based platforms. Net Radio Sales, to be renamed Katz Net Radio Sales, sells streaming audio as well as all forms of interactive advertising across its digital network of hundreds of Internet station affiliates and provides exact audience and impression measurement for every advertising campaign.
"The addition of Net Radio Sales offers us the opportunity to enter the exploding digital media world and is a natural extension of our business," said Mark Gray, President of the Katz Radio Group. "The combination of KRG's scale and Net Radio's emerging platform will offer our clients and advertisers a powerful new way to aggregate listeners and create integrated advertising campaigns that reach a much broader audience."
Katz Net Radio Sales will be led by Jennifer Lane, the current president of Net Radio Sales. As part of this transaction, Katz entered an exclusive agreement to use the Internet radio audience measurement tools created by one of Aritaur's partners, Ando Media. With Ando's Webcast Metrics and Campaign Management System, Katz Net Radio will be able to accurately and precisely plan, traffic and monitor ad campaigns across the entire network, or any targeted portion of it.
SmartMedia observation: The big issue at hand is how many more ads Katz Net Radio Sales and others like it will have to sell for webcasters and streaming radio stations to make enough revenue to stay afloat after the new Copyright Royalty Board rated kick in-officially 7/15. For those stations and companies who choose not to turn off their streams in the wake of these devastating new fees, it's companies like Katz Net Radio Sales and Ronning Lipset Radio who will be the make or break difference. Many webcasters who currently operate commercial-free will have to either become subscription-only or add streaming advertising. There could be a lot of new clients coming soon to these rep firms.
