The Sirius/XM Advertisement Planning Rates

85  2014-03-14 by EskimoEscrow

154 comments

This is the kind of post I like from this sub! True investigative journalism instead of some bitchy comment about Opie bothers you.

Opie stinks! Ever notice he steps on peoples funny lines?

Even his own

No way, I've never heard anyone say that before.

Dude I notice that too! Let's go blow eachother behind the dumpster in agreement.

I just checked the forecast, and there's 100% chance of Monster Rain...

You can get a live read on the After Show with beaver pelts or tales of adventure

You can get a live read on the After Show by mailing in a Tatanka action figure.

:30 if it's out of the box, 1:00 if it's still in.

I wouldn't want Sam's bad voice being the voice of my company.

ok, that was funny.....

$500 bucks for a live read?

C'mon people, lets all chip in and have Ant live read an ad for BlackPeopleMeet.com!

wassat?

I almost started explaining what black people meet.com is.

I should explain it to the business end of a shotgun

I'd rather chip in to make them do a live read to follow bobo's twitter.

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this is a great idea

I work in marketing. We were planning on advertising, (back when Dr Steve had his show), and this is the first page of the rates they sent me.

When's this from? I have no doubt it's legitimate, I was just wondering.

I just called the Advertising dept. at Sirius/XM, they send this to you as a rate package.

I mean the year - you mentioned when Dr. Steve had his show. Is this 2014 info or is it earlier?

Oh sorry, this is 2013

thx buddy

So if a live read by Howie costs 10k and a live read by O&A is only 500 bucks, that means that they are either "assuming" Howie has 20 times more listeners, or his listeners are 20 times more likely to buy after hearing a live read advertisement.

This might seem like a minor distinction, but they're actually assuming that advertisers will pay 20x as much for a Howard live read than an O&A one.

The advertisers themselves are operating on imperfect info - the advertisers don't have listener amounts (OP, correct me if I'm wrong). The advertisers are making decisions based on their perceptions of shows - and of course Stern (with a judge role on an NBC show, and being the most prominent non-political talk radio broadcaster in history) will have a higher recognition.

Really, the biggest takeaway I have from this is that Sirius runs its business horribly (by not disclosing information that could make them more money, and by charging uniform rates for channels where breaking it down could lead to significant increases).

It could also mean that Howard is less willing to do live reads and they are using the pricing to limit access to him.

hmm very good point

Well all a person who is thinking about buying advertising on the Howard channel has to do is listen to the other people who have ads on that channel and then contact those companies and ask if they will share info on how the ads have worked for their sales. If they are unhappy they will almost certainly say "We bought a one year contract and it isn't at all worth it. Do not buy ad time here." These typically aren't competing businesses so sharing information about something like this is not out of the ordinary. When you are talking about spending 10k for a minute live read you are talking about businesses that have made some money and know what is smart and what isn't. These typically won't be dopes who are just gonna assume "Well they want 10k so it must be worth it."

Of course not, but how do you think the business can quantify that specific advertisement? Companies that are spending $10k for assumedly a number of Stern live reads will also have a number of other advertising outlets.

The only real method they have of doing that is asking customers how they heard about the company, which is flawed and isn't widely used to begin with. Those methods also typically won't ask for a specific show - they'll list things like "radio," or "satellite radio" for the small minority of ones that get really specific.

My biggest qualm is how badly Sirius runs its advertising - instead of letting people make informed decisions via listener data (and they could give much better information than something like Arbitron could), they apparently don't disclose anything and lead companies to guess.

Advertising isn't guess-work. They can track the lift from marketing campaigns in a variety of ways.

The most obvious way is when an ad will say "use the code OARadio" for a 10% discount.

Another is varying the URL or phone number that is advertised... For example, they may use one (800) number for a Howard campaign and a different number for an O&A campaign.

Another which you pointed out is the "how did you hear about us.." Thing.

You'd be surprised at how much time/energy/science is applied to marketing and advertising. Of course it isn't 100% perfect, but the companies are aware of and account for that too.

You can bet a company with over $1 million in revenue has a department dedicated to analyzing marketing data.

I forgot about the promo code thing - you're right, I'm sure that's how they do it. It makes sense that they'd have ways to track it.

From Sirius's perspective, you'd think they wouldn't want companies to have to do that amount of work, especially since the data is giving them information after the fact - the initial investment would be with extremely limited information (unless you can get information from other companies).

If you're a big enough fish I wouldn't doubt they would be willing to provide that information.

If you're Fresh Balls and you're investing $5,000 into a marketing campaign, then you are less likely to receive sensitive data.

This is speculation on my part, I have no experience in radio advertising, but do have experience in analyzing ROI for other types of marketing.

Someone told me once this was called a "key code". FYI

Dead on.

Our parent company has a different phone number for each radio station they advertise on. Easy to track which ones work and which ones don't. They all ring at the same place, so it makes no difference but the statement shows you the data.

I completely agree. It's obvious they have no real analytics and a horribly basic pricing structure. What do all these executives do for 40 hours per week? There must be a lot of shoes up on a number of desks.

No. I'm in advertising. Ad rates aren't based on perceptions in that way. Even the out-of-touch radio biz doesn't work that way. Prices are, in fact, tied to estimated impressions. Or at least that's what they'd have to tell advertisers. They might not give them audience numbers per se but at the very least they provide estimated numbers.

It makes more sense that they'd at least give estimates. That being said, I'd still be very wary just having that info.

Just to piggyback onto your point. The Howard Stern Radio Network and some other 3rd party company both have a sales and marketing department for advertising sales for his show and channel.

By actively pursuing sales and marketing to would-be advertisers, you typically would see an increase in the asking price for advertising, all other things being equal.

EDIT: I wonder if SXM advertising rates are different for Howard if you go through his HS Radio Network or HS Ad Network.

I've never understood why they dont release listener numbers for individual channels. Opie did mention recently that they did see how man listeners they had via the website/app. Makes me wonder if they dont have the full numbers available because physical radios/units in cars dont have the capability to transmit that info back to Sirius.

This is it. They don't. No where in the terms for the radios does it say they'll collect usage data.

Also they can't - it's a one-way transmission.

didn't Danny come out on Twitter and pretty much say what this sheet reads? He had claimed someone left a sheet like this in the copier..looks like he was being honest

Yeah it seems pretty likely to me that Howard's audience could be that much bigger. If O&A show was just trailing Howard in ratings by a little they wouldn't be frantically trying to revamp their show/station to attract new listeners and sponsors.

It doesn't matter which show is better(which people can argue about), it's the "brand" you're paying for, now toss in the fact that Howard doesn't do as many live shows so there is limited ability which could start a bidding war for those spots hence another reason for the inflated costs.

Or howies ratio of hayseed dirt poor southern truckers is lower than OnA's.

Well that coincides with the idea that Hoo Hoo's listeners are 20 times more likely to make a purchase.

I think hemroid cream would sell well on the channel.

Also take into account that Howard is rarely in studio nowadays so his live reads are much more uncommon.

Or it means that Stern insists on a sizeable cut of the live read. Knowing him, this does not sound unlikely.

I would think something like that would have had to be put into his initial contract and if that was in his contract I'm sure O&A would have known it and have brought it up when they used to bash him more regularly.

Uh, I'm sure not too many people are aware of the details of his contract. Also, that he gets cut of live reads isn't really remarkable, especially when considered with all the other stuff about his salary, etc.

Well I guess we will agree to disagree, sir. My name is Kevin, too. How do ya like dem apples?

Uhh hoo hoo ya know I invent the live read Rahbin hoo hoo

Some people have speculated you can purchase as little as one live read. What about Jimmy's advertiser he wanted to bring to the show (presumably Hotcan Self Heating Soup) that turned away because Sirius wanted $10,000 or something like that?

I think jimmy misunderstood what someone told him about show advertisers. He claimed siriusXM wanted 100k for ads on his show. That doesn't jive with anything on these lists or the popularity of his old show.

I'm going to guess that you can't just buy 1 spot, you'd buy a package of spots.

Not true

You can buy one spot? It was a "guess" like I said.

Yea. You usually get discounts for purchasing more than one, but it's not uncommon for advertisers to place one ad or live read, and then gauge the response before they commit to a longer plan. (I.E. - Steven Singer probably has a greatly discounted plan, perhaps he's even locked in from earlier rates)

Ok, but how do you know this? Because your post conflicts with Jimmy's distaste towards how his advertiser was treated.

I know you can just purchase one because that was my request, and they were fine with that. Not sure about Jim's situation, maybe they wanted an extended plan? Maybe Jim actually using it and mentioning it on the show is considered more valuable than just a live read? Not sure.
Edit: Also, look at the column where it says "Total"; this is referring to the amount of spots.

Is it possible since Jim's show was only once a week they inflated the cost(since it's not listed on there) and they may have just thrown the advertisers a high number?

They usually try to lock you in on annual or other contracts. I've had those problems trying to advertise my business.

I wish I could just buy one live read. $500 I can swing that.

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$300 a pop for a 60-second loop of "Yeah, this is Bobo...".

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How about paying for Shawn F to do a "live read" of "You're Fat As Fuck"? I mean, does it have to be O, A or J?

Get Bob Levy to read for the Annual Lady Di Intervention.

And advertise some website that just redirects to the basketball shot video?

Or... "Find out what the factory farmers and agribusiness don't want you to know about the meat industry. Get a free report at meatspin.com."

Brilliant!

Yeah, I'd pitch in half... we can have them do a minute-long live read for Nug Life.

Does anyone know the minimum purchase ?

You can buy just one live read if you want. You get a discount if you purchase multiple (in most cases)

I'd throw some cash in as well. Though we'd probably get fucked and it'd be Sam doing our live read at the end of the show.

this needs to happen.

Let's all pitch in and make Anthony read a glowing endorsement of the Brady Campaign, or the NAACP.

Hair plugs

CougarLife would work too.

Ted's wax teeth emporium.

haha it'd be great if we could get him a coexist tshirt. He talks all the time about just running out of shirts to wear and having to wear whatevers left.

How about a kickstarter to get hoo hoo to do an O&A read

$500 Bucks for a O&A live read for SiriusXM to bring back East Side Dave!

Brilliant

Will they play any ad bought or do they screen them?

Good question. Depends on the platform. If we're talking O&A, I assume the only limitations would be the same ones they have on their show. No insertion talk ect... Otherwise they just want your goddamn money.

If you remember am few years ago, the show had a sponsor called Boy Butter that was a lube targeted towards the gay. Really over the top gay announcer, references to butt sex etc

The Rudder ended up calling them out on the air, and that was the end of their sponsorship.

There's always a line. O&A used to play a clip of Stern doing a live read for XM on FM after he signed with Sirius and was waiting for his contract to expire. Sometimes you can get out of shit, sometimes you can't.

Who or what is The Rudder?

I wonder how shade 45 works.

They don't accept EBT.

Usually those people don't work

Unless they release the number of listeners I would never purchase advertising on S/XM

Bet your ass they'd release them if they were impressive. The only appeal to advertise without numbers is subjective. I bet less than 500k people listen to any given episode of Stern in it's entirety (replays and all). For 10k you are better off doing a tv spot.

Spot on... almost every other means of advertising shows you their numbers. In fact, 'Circulation' or 'Audience' is one of the first things mentioned on any standard rate card. The very fact they don't show you their numbers is the reason why you don't see many advertisers. Or you see advertisers come on for a few months and then bail.

I think the below posters are right on being able to track, but that's all post-advertisement evaluation; you're exactly right (from what I'm aware - I was a marketing major in college but don't work in that field) on typically having the data upfront. They're basically forcing people to go in blind - when you do that, the only way to demand any type of significant money is if the person whose show you're advertising on is a huge name (which, based on his past, Stern certainly is).

I've been placing ads for more than 4 years, and this is the first and only company that didn't provide audience numbers. This is so unconventional, as audience numbers are the FIRST thing you show the bosses when gaining approval for advertising. Always.
Even institutions that can't give public numbers, (non-profits, Government organizations) ask you to sign a confidentiality agreement before sending, which is extremely rare.

The only way to justify it is if the audience is an extreme demographic match to the product you're selling and the product would also have to carry a high price tag to make up the low reach.

However, being in marketing I think of how smart a move advertising diamond rings on O & A was. Men purchase jewelry for women, and because the mostly male audience has no brand awareness of jewelers, if you were to ask where to buy an engagement ring the majority of them would recall Steven Singer.

yeah, 10K would be a nice budget for a lower-end TV commercial or two that could run for months.

Does anybody know how these rates compare to a FM morning show in a major market?

Seems about right. 1M daily stern listeners vs 50K for O+A

No axes to grind here...

How do you know all this stuff? Are you Danny?

that seems a little high for both.

wow does stern really have that many more listeners?

Rather than the Opie and Anthony subreddit buying a spot we should pool our money and sponsor the line of the day or something.

We can have it sponsored by "Bob Levy's Joke recycling.

Wow.

If I had 500 bucks I would write up a live read that was just "cunts" repeated 120 times just to see if they would do it. Or maybe you could write up a script and then have Anthony read all of it a minute at a time, record it, and then upload it to sound cloud and/or youtube.

No Jason ellis, eh?

He's on a music channel. So no commercial or live reads allowed.

You're saying there are no commercials in a 4 hour talk show?

They take breaks by playing a couple songs.

He's too extreme to appear on these kinds of things.

I'm going to do this live read while a tuh-tahl bites my balls

Crowdfund some live reads? Maybe an after show read written by esteemed Sam-hater Dalex...

Doesn't seem particularly surprising - a 10/1 ratio between them and Stern had been mentioned before, and the number on produced spots is close to that.

Extrapolating listener numbers from this isn't possible, IMO - Stern has much higher brand recognition, and his listener base by and large probably has a higher median income than O&A's does.

Not to sound too fanboyish, but IMO the show O&A do in 2014 blows Stern's 2014 show completely out of the water. Whether one gets paid more from advertisers is irrelevant to that determination.

Look at the ratings of the Big Bang Theory. Good rarely means popular.

The Superbowl is the most watched football game of the year, and it's probably the hardest one to watch because of excessive interruption.

A good chunk watch it for the interruptions..

So they are the second highest, next to Howard and slightly higher rates than Mad Dog. That fits pretty well in line.

The thing for me is that if that a regular spot is $175, wouldn't all Doctor Steve, Sam, Eastside Dave, and whoever else just need to secure 1 recurring sponsor to keep their show going? How hard can that be?

They charge the same amount for Doctor Steve/Sam/ESD or an O&A replay. To that end, the value added by Doctor Steve/Sam/ESD would be zero, in terms of advertising dollars *under the rates Sirius is charging - they obviously may be able to get more for shows by Doctor Steve/Sam/ESD, but they're not trying to do so).

So do u pay 500 per week? Day? Month? Per read? I dunno about marketing but i would love to hear my construction company advert on o&a.

Per read.

Mad Dog gets as much for a live read as O&A? Fucking horse shit.

Sports radio is more popular than senior citizen shock jockery

Why are the majority of comments in this thread "There's no way Stern gets 10K for a read." Yet nobody wants to bring up the FACT that Scott Ferrall gets almost as much ad revenue per spot on an 8PM show than O&A do in mornings. I'm pretty sure the billion dollar company knows a little more about doing business than the high school students and Starbucks baristas that make up this sub.

Cue laughable spin job in 3...2...1...

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Yeah sorry about that clearly the $50 I was off is the difference between D-List and superstardom.

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http://i.imgur.com/Oly5heN.jpg Do you see where it says:

Produced Brand Spot? Do you see how for Scott's show it's 250 and for O&A it's 300? That's a fifty dollar difference. O&A are morning drive on both coasts and claim to have an audience comparable to Howard Sterns. Scott is 8pm EST.

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it took less time to do that than it did you to reply to me.

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And the Mexicans still have the cheapest rent.

I'm probably totally wrong but the huge difference in price between OnA and Howard could also be because they need to recoup a lot more money to fund Howard's whole operation. If this isn't based off of listenership and partly based off perception of what people think of shows/what they think the spot is worth then they could be factoring in what they need to break even/make a profit. It's no secret that Howard's channel cost much more than OnA and same thing with their contracts, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that is part of the reason for pricing.

Your actually right on. Since they don't give the numbers out to anyone, they expect advertisers to base their decision on the show's perceived popularity. And if Howie has all the big guests, the TV element, ect..., he is perceived as this big dog, when in reality his listenership could be down to nothing.

Howie also weaves live reads into the show while it's going on. During the news he will just ask Robin a stupid question about pillows then start a live read.

I love it

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No wonder Sirius kisses Hoo Hoo's ass and shits on the buh-buh-boys.

Would there be a lot of limitations on what you can and cant do? Like could you advertise your own podcast? Or what about a crowdfunded O and A ad on Howard?

Something tells me they wouldnt go for Lyle Chipperson's Big Birthday Bash. Just wondering hypothetically more than anything.

I hadn't thought of cross-promoting other shows on the platforms. I would assume they'd frown upon that. But honestly, they ask very little questions in terms of content. You can definitely get away with a BS read as long as it doesn't break their decency rules.

This is shocking to me. If Stern has more listeners than O&A, it's not an overwhelming amount. I can't believe that they can get $10,000 for a Hoo Hoo Live read. It blows my mind.

I know, 10 grand is an insane amount to ask. It's all about perception.

This. I can't imagine there's any chance Stern has 12-20x the listeners O&A have, and if there's a difference in demographics, I would assume it's minimal (Stern may get a bit more of a mix, but they still have the same demo as their base). I don't know whether it makes Stern a bad buy, O&A a great buy, or both.

That sir is confidential information. Most companies keep their ACTUAL rates secret. You can get estimated rates but the actual rates are usually never released to the public. You may want to delete.

He called and asked for them. He is the public.

From a legal perspective, if this was confidential info a company as big as Sirius would almost certainly have a confidentiality agreement in place and signed before releasing info, if they wanted it protected.

Ya, literally anyone can call right now and ask for the rates. Just say you're interested in advertising. It's really no questions asked.

I stand corrected then

I think OP would know what he signed, if anything. Mind your business.

I'm saying that, if he didn't sign anything, then there's likely no confidentiality to worry about. Mind your reading comprehension.

Ah shit, I didn't even finish reading your comment... My fault.

I apologize for being rude, baby cakes... I say we go analyze advertising rates, do some Chip impressions, then maybe we kiss on the mouth a little.

The document is not marked, though. Not from what he scanned.

They sent it to me as an Excel file, lol. They have surprisingly little professionalism, I didn't even get a call-back after they sent it. Their marketing dept. is a joke.

There's a dude in the bushes. Has he got a gun? I dunno! RED TEAM GO, RED TEAM GO.

There's a person! There's a person stranded!

Admins? Comment? I'll take it down if it's sensitive info.

Fuckem.

I don't see anything on there that says "confidential" or "for internal use only".

No personal info, no contact information, no problem.

They don't accept EBT.

I almost started explaining what black people meet.com is.

I should explain it to the business end of a shotgun

Howie also weaves live reads into the show while it's going on. During the news he will just ask Robin a stupid question about pillows then start a live read.

Usually those people don't work

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