iHeart and Audacy Digital Radio Buying, Negotiated

The number on an iHeartMedia or Audacy digital proposal is an opening position. What moves it is the calendar, since the last fortnight of a quarter behaves nothing like the first, and what you are willing to concede in return: pod position, daypart flexibility, term length, a station list you can live with. The negotiation is the service. Placing the insertion order is the easy part. What is actually being bought: Two separable things that proposals prefer to blend. One is streaming simulcast, the terrestrial signal delivered over IP with ads dynamically inserted, sold by market and daypart and counted server-side. The other is podcast inventory across the iHeartPodcast Network and Audacy's shows, sold by episode, by show, or run-of-network at a discount that exists precisely because run-of-network is where the unsold weight goes. We split them on every plan and price them separately, because their delivery, their attribution and their negotiating room have nothing in common. What we negotiate for: A disclosed station and show list, never run-of-network with the list withheld. First position in pod across a stated share of impressions, because in a three-ad pod the third slot is a different product at the same price. A delivery definition anchored to the IAB Tech Lab podcast measurement guidelines rather than a download count the seller defines for itself. Cash back on shortfall instead of bonus weight in a later flight, which is the concession sellers offer first because it costs them least. And format-level exclusions on talk inventory agreed in the paperwork, not raised after your spot has aired beside something regrettable. Attribution, honestly: The podcast measurement market changed in 2024 when Chartable was retired and Podsights was folded into Spotify Ad Analytics. Pixel attribution on non-Spotify inventory now runs through Podscribe or Artsai, or through the network's own reporting, and network-graded homework is worth what that sounds like. We instrument independently where the network permits it. Where they do not, we put that on the plan in writing and move the weight of the measurement onto a promo code and a matched-market read rather than pretending a pixel exists. Host-read spots: We buy them, on two conditions. The host receives a brief and an approved claims list, not agency copy to perform verbatim, because a host reading your sentences word for word destroys the only asset you are paying extra for. And the disclosure is scripted rather than improvised. An endorsement without disclosure is a compliance problem sitting inside somebody else's audio file, and it surfaces months later. Outside scope: Terrestrial spot radio bought on ratings currency. Creative production and script writing. Sponsorship of a host's separate ventures. And any structure where payment is tied to a download figure the seller both defines and counts. Say no to this if: Your market is South Africa. These are United States networks. The equivalent inventory here is bought directly from Mediamark and Primedia Broadcasting on entirely different terms, and buying iHeart to reach Johannesburg is money set alight. Say no as well if you need the plan inside a week. A negotiated buy of this kind takes two to three weeks of back and forth to be worth having, and rushing it means accepting the opening position, which is what most buyers do and why the opening position is set where it is.