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Some Cumulus stations play different commercials in their streams

Jonathan7157

Jonathan7157

Frequent Participant
I just realized that some Cumulus statons play nationwide commericals (ex. Geico, Home Depot, etc.) over the station's local commercials in the area.

Example of this, is when I listen to Mobile, Alabama Top 40 station 97.5 WABD's stream. When they go into a commercial break, a local commercial plays for the Mobile area, but only for 1-2 seconds. After that, a Geico commercial plays. However, someone that lives in, lets say (for example), Pensacola, can listen to WABD's FM signal on a normal radio with all the local commercials in their entierties (not that someone would, as he/she would certainly tune in to another station, just to hear more music)

Is this so that the streams don't count in PPMs when someone listens to a Cumulus station online?

I don't know why Cumulus does this, since iHeart stations allow local commercials to be aired on iHeartRadio (sometimes), while Cumulus doesn't allow them at all on their streams.
 
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Some commercials cannot be aired over a stream because it may violate local union rules in that the station would have to pay the voiceover artists additional commission. They likely have the right to use the national commercials in their stream without the agency having to pay more.
 
I noticed that Newson the TV app does similar things though.


https://cloversonoma.com/

Newson App blacks-out the local ads that airs on Disney O&O's like KABC7, KGO7 and replace the local ads with either Clover Sonoma milk or ABC/Disney Promos in place of the ads that was blacked out due to contract reasons.

However when I watch a Hearst owned TV station on Newson like KCRA Sacramento or WCVB Boston the local ads like Roseville Auto Mall appear uncensored due to how the station owners and local advertisers came up with the agreements.
 
umfan said:
Some commercials cannot be aired over a stream because it may violate local union rules in that the station would have to pay the voiceover artists additional commission. They likely have the right to use the national commercials in their stream without the agency having to pay more.
Click to expand...

In 2001, the ruling that unionized voice talent was entitled to additional money from exposure through internet streaming of radio broadcasters knocked a large number of radio stations, some of whom had only just started streaming, off the internet. Most eventually returned once the ad-substitution technology became available and reliable.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Yes thats been true for 12 years at least and its a contract issue between station owners and advertisers.
Click to expand...

Actually, the consideration here is the contract agreement between SAG-AFTRA voiceover talent and advertising agencies. Generally, it says that additional fees must be paid for commercials that are streamed. Most agencies that use union talent specify in ad buys "no streaming" so they do not have to pay those fees.

Stations simply avoid the issue by either specifically blocking certain ads, or by fully replacing stopsets with a different set of ads that are done for streaming.

This is why many radio station streams are separately listed in Nielsen ratings since to be combined with the over the air programming the stream must be 100% simulcast down to the last second.
 
umfan said:
Some commercials cannot be aired over a stream because it may violate local union rules in that the station would have to pay the voiceover artists additional commission. They likely have the right to use the national commercials in their stream without the agency having to pay more.
Click to expand...

It's generally not a local union issue with stations. It is the national agreement with SAG-AFTRA which demands additional payment from ad agencies if commercials done with union talent are used in an additional medium, such as digital streaming. In most cases, this affects predominantly national and regional accounts, but it also affects local business done via local agencies in markets where most VO work employs union talent.

This only affects radio stations directly in cases where the station "voices" are unionized and the station does production for an agency account or distributes its production for a client to other stations; in such a case the talent has to receive the appropriate union compensation for production that "goes outside".
 
Jonathan7157 said:
Is this so that the streams don't count in PPMs when someone listens to a Cumulus station online?
Click to expand...

Station streams are not combined with the OTA signal in Nielsen ratings (diary or PPM) unless there is a 100% simulcast of everything. Otherwise, streams and OTA are listed separately.
 
I don't know how many other iHeart stations did it, but for the longest time, WDCG in Raleigh's online stream was what you heard before the 10 second delay. For example, I was listening one morning to the Showgram, a caller dropped an F Bomb and it went out online but not over the air.
 
Cumulus does encode the streams for PPM.....(I just had an issue with my decoders....if Nielsen will ever get back to me now)....
In some cases (and this is my personal opinion, NOT Cumulus official, etc), it COULD be that the national spots pay better and the local spots dont get ran because they are market only..and the stream is not...(My $.02)
 
ContinuousWave said:
Cumulus does encode the streams for PPM.....(I just had an issue with my decoders....if Nielsen will ever get back to me now)....
In some cases (and this is my personal opinion, NOT Cumulus official, etc), it COULD be that the national spots pay better and the local spots dont get ran because they are market only..and the stream is not...(My $.02)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the streaming spots "pay better" (I'm not sure if anyone makes much on their streams after royalties) but it is a separate revenue stream and an opportunity to make money twice on the same stopset. You can also sell geotargeted spots, so someone listening to a station in Alabama from Michigan hears a spot that's relevant to them. It may be too early in the game to make a lot of money doing this, but the technology is there and you might as well use it.

On the other hand, I know of some clusters that took out their ad insertion because they weren't making any money on it, but they were getting enough online listening where they could get better rates combining streaming listening with the FM numbers, so they opt for the 100% simulcast instead. It all depends upon the market. Also, if you have a bunch of rimshots in your cluster, you will get a lot of in-home/at-work listening online because of building penetration issues, so it could make you some serious money if you can report streaming + on air listening as one number.
 
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