Until now, the TuneIn audio service — and its globally used app found in everything from exercise equipment to smartphones and smart speakers — was somewhat limited in its domestic radio streaming offerings.
The reason: iHeartMedia and Audacy, formerly Entercom, found it best to go their own way by funneling all who wished to stream their over-the-air stations on proprietary platforms iHeartRadio and what was Radio.com, respectively.
Now, iHeart has changed its tune.
A partnership has been forged that will enable TuneIn to every iHeartMedia station’s audio stream.
It’s a major score for TuneIn, while representing a significant change in perspective for iHeartMedia, which has used the iHeartRadio platform as the exclusive way for consumers to stream their broadcast stations’ digital audio streams.
Interestingly, the TuneIn/iHeart partnership comes just days after it became known that iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group COO Darren Davis will be stepping down at the end of 2021, concluding nearly 30 years at iHeart and its predecessors.
The freshly signed accord between iHeart and TuneIn gives the latter access to local advertising demand from iHeartMedia’s “monetization assets,” including its 2,000+-strong local market sales representatives and Triton Digital’s advertising technology.
How soon can TuneIn users start streaming such iHeartMedia stations as KIIS-FM in Los Angeles? TuneIn says access is coming today (7/29). As of 11:10am Eastern, however, the lone “KIIS” stations appearing in the RBR+TVBR TuneIn app were for Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, respectively.
There’s a perfect reason for this: An app update is needed to get access to iHeartRadio, which is clearly visible on the home page.
While the addition of all iHeartMedia AMs and FMs to the TuneIn platform, which includes web browser access, is surprising, the reason is clear: it is being done “to further iHeartMedia’s distribution strategy to be everywhere their listeners are.”
A MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL SSP PLAY
When one examines the iHeartMedia/TuneIn partnership, how it came together becomes crystal clear. It is all about securing a deal for Triton Digital, recently acquired by iHeartMedia from The E.W. Scripps Co.
The audio Supply Side Platform (SSP) enables both the direct sale, through iHeart’s local salesforce, as well as the programmatic sale, through TuneIn’s salesforce.
This, the companies share, allows Triton — and, in turn, iHeart — to reach audio publishers’ inventory across TuneIn‘s 200+ consumer platform touchpoints. It offers brands “even more audience reach and targetability,” the companies said.
“The TuneIn and iHeart partnership is a great marriage of content and technology enabled by Triton’s cutting edge and comprehensive suite of audio advertising technology to support streaming audio and podcasts businesses with both direct and programmatic sales,” said Brian Kaminsky, Chief Data Officer and President of Revenue Strategies for iHeartMedia. “With Triton’s SSP, local advertisers will now have the ability to reach additional iHeart and TuneIn listeners through both direct and programmatic sales. We are also excited that TuneIn’s open radio platform allows us to share our content and programming with even more streaming radio fans. Triton’s Audio Ad Tech delivers targeted audio advertising across the entire spectrum of listening platforms — web, mobile apps, smart speakers and across other distribution platforms like TuneIn.”
Rob Deichert, Chief Revenue Officer for TuneIn, added, “The relationship with iHeart demonstrates the power of TuneIn’s open platform to flexibly align with the content, distribution and monetization assets of our partners to jointly create new and previously unrecognized value. We’re incredibly pleased to partner with iHeartMedia and Triton as we continue our mission to delight listeners and reinvent radio for a connected world.”
A HISTORICAL LEAP
Nine years ago, audio streaming platform growth saw Emmis Communications and Cox Media Group sign on with iHeartRadio, then a division of Clear Channel Communications.
For TuneIn, those two broadcasters were also welcomed, as was Entercom Communications and CBS Radio.
By 2018, however, Entercom, now the owner of CBS Radio, had a different attitude toward having its radio station streams universally accessible. It was all about ad dollars.
With the Radio.com platform getting a reboot, Entercom yanked all of its station from TuneIn, making Radio.com — today, Audacy — the lone home for audio streaming of the company’s broadcast radio stations.
In an internal memo sent to all Entercom staff on June 25, 2018, company President/CEO David Field said he was “pleased” to make the announcement, explaining the decision was made “to drive all digital listening of our outstanding stations, shows, and personalities to our own Radio.com platform.”
Field told employees, “One of the benefits of our scale and the quality of our brands and content is the ability to compete effectively in the rapidly growing digital audio sector. As the nation’s No. 1 creator of live, original, local audio content with a lineup of 235 outstanding stations, and the country’s unrivaled leader in news and sports radio, we have assets no other company can match and an enviable reach of over 112 million listeners per month — plus tens of millions more on our digital and social platforms.”
It was a move decided to put Radio.com, now Audacy, on par with iHeartRadio.
Now, Field and Audacy stand alone as a walled garden, as iHeart’s stations find a new global home with near universal accessibility.
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