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Radio needs programmatic play to counter threat from streaming giants warns Carat CEO

The CEO of Australia’s second largest media agency Carat has warned the radio industry it needs to beware the threat of streaming players Spotify and Pandora and accelerate a push to programmatic.

Simon Ryan CEO, Carat Australia and New Zealand speaking at the 2015 Commercial Radio Australia conference 2015

Simon Ryan CEO, Carat Australia and New Zealand

Speaking at the National Radio Conference, Simon Ryan, whose agency represents major clients including Woolworths, David Jones, L’Oreal and Mondelez, told the room that radio and the wider media faced a growing threat from global players and that it needed to galvanise the local media players towards innovation.

“Spotify and Pandora have 6.5m listeners and we have to wonder what is next for them.” said Ryan. “From my perspective, both agency and the Australian radio, we have an industry to protect, we have jobs to protect, we have talent to look after, we have a big industry to protect.

“We need to accelerate our industry as a whole – whether it’s as a media owner or radio perspective to really accelerate and grow quickly and look at ways we can gather the audience.

“Especially with the international media giants that are coming in.”

Ryan made the remarks on a panel looking at the future of programmatic across various media.

Cathy O'Connor CEO, Nova Entertainment, Peter Wiltshire Group Sales & Marketing Director, Nine Entertainment, Mike Tyquin CCO, Adshel, Simon Ryan CEO, Carat Australia and New Zealand, Mark Hollands Chief Executive, The Newspaper Works, Alex Hayes editor, Mumbrella speaking at the 2015 Commercial Radio Australia conference 2015

Nova’s Cathy O’Connor Peter Wiltshire Group Sales & Marketing Director, Nine Entertainment, Mike Tyquin CCO, Adshel, Carat’s Simon Ryan, Mark Hollands CEO The Newspaper Works, Alex Hayes editor, Mumbrella.

Nova Entertainment CEO Cathy O’Connor, who was also on the panel, rejected the argument that streaming players are a threat to commercial radio.

“We are compared to Spotify and Pandora and I think we need to call that out,” said O’Connor. “What those businesses do is different.

“They are not like commercial radio. It is a different economy that we work in – it is an ideas economy. We are transacting with agencies around big campaigns and that can never be automated.”

Ryan responded that radio could look at a number of models and that the key objective was to simplify the buying process to make it attractive and easy for marketers and their agencies to invest with radio.

“I think it is important that everyone knows that programmatic does not always mean cheap,” said Ryan. “The radio stations can go down the path of fixed cost inventory, they might go to an auction based bidding system you really have to choose the format of radio that works for you and your cost base.

O’Connor who is leading Commercial Radio Australia’s programmatic discussions said the industry was making strides in the space.

“The obvious territory for us is audio streaming (of our properties),” said O’Connor. “Ten per cent of the commercial radio audience accesses radio through an IP device.

“There is a lot to explore but I don’t think we are there yet.”

Nic Christensen 

Mumbrella travelled to the Gold Coast as guests of Commercial Radio Australia. 

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