And the All-Christmas war begins!

[flybynight]

There is no shortage of ad media in any US market. And absent any incident of collusion, there is no gouging.

You don't think advertisers are climbing all over each other trying to get in early on the almost-2-months-before-Christmas all-Christmas music money train?

As far as collusion, I don't think Putin cares one way or another about Christmas music.

 

[davideduardo]

You don't think advertisers are climbing all over each other trying to get in early on the almost-2-months-before-Christmas all-Christmas music money train?

No, I don't think that.

Christmas music specifically delivers 25-64 year old women.

Generally, the stations that target that demo, AC in nearly every case, are already serving advertisers who want that audience.

While some accounts only advertise in the holiday season, most Christmas station advertisers use the same station the rest of the year, too.

And non-retail accounts and those that slump at the holiday season (think things like insurance agencies and home repair type businesses) pull back on advertising in that season.

So generally, the increase in holiday business from retail and certain other accounts is offset by decreases in service industry accounts.

Yes, "Christmas Stations" will get a good sell-out level for 6 to 8 weeks, and they can charge premium rates. But it's not as if they were turning down loads of business.

The old adage goes, "if you are sold out you are selling too cheap". I followed that once and raised rates five times in one year. But in the case of Christmas stations, the balloon comes back to earth in January and the first two months are often much lower in billing and sell-out levels than comparable stations in the market, sales wise. So there is a balancing of billing in the season vs. lost revenue in January and February.

I'll bet a sales pro like Buddy can tell us if the same thing happened in the past in Buffalo.

 

[Buddy Shula]

Commercial inventory is the biggest factor between the 2 Christmas Music stations. ETM caps it, while TS does not. I can tell you from buying both stations with my agency, the price between the two stations are significant. Over the years, at 102.5, there was not a huge demand from advertisers for Christmas music. Listeners seem to like it, but advertisers usually did not even know they changes format, which is what they did. It always seemed unfair to me that the stations just change their entire format overnight, but do not alert clients to that change. Like clients don't matter.

The rates in Buffalo at a station like STAR do not change much, as their is not that much demand. Some clients actually pull their advertisers when they realize the format has been changed.

I realize that the demo really did not change, but at this early point in the game, their are many listeners and advertisers who do not like the format change. They will go to other stations for a while. Remember as well, Sirius has many channels to choose from for Christmas, with no commercials. The great thing about Sirius is it's all about programming, not sales. I know a PD at Sirius and that is what he loves most. They focus entirely on the listener.

Last year, 102.5's Christmas ratings were good, but more disappointing than years before. Sales stagnant.

 

[Buddy Shula]

Commercial inventory is the biggest factor between the 2 Christmas Music stations. ETM caps it, while TS does not. I can tell you from buying both stations with my agency, the price between the two stations are significant. Over the years, at 102.5, there was not a huge demand from advertisers for Christmas music. Listeners seem to like it, but advertisers usually did not even know they changes format, which is what they did. It always seemed unfair to me that the stations just change their entire format overnight, but do not alert clients to that change. Like clients don't matter.

The rates in Buffalo at a station like STAR do not change much, as their is not that much demand. Some clients actually pull their advertisers when they realize the format has been changed.

I realize that the demo really did not change, but at this early point in the game, their are many listeners and advertisers who do not like the format change. They will go to other stations for a while. Remember as well, Sirius has many channels to choose from for Christmas, with no commercials. The great thing about Sirius is it's all about programming, not sales. I know a PD at Sirius and that is what he loves most. They focus entirely on the listener.

Last year, 102.5's Christmas ratings were good, but more disappointing than years before. Sales stagnant.

Sorry for my typo's- the edit button is not working on this thread.

 

[CTListener]

The great thing about Sirius is it's all about programming, not sales. I know a PD at Sirius and that is what he loves most. They focus entirely on the listener.

Ownership seems to be pimping out its "commercial-free" music channels to labels, artists and other entities increasingly often. One of the Christmas channels is sponsored by Hallmark. I doubt the channel's figurehead programmer at SiriusXM (if there is one; maybe someone at Hallmark dictates the entire playlist and rotation) has any thought of focusing on the listener, just rubber-stamping whatever tunes Hallmark wants played.

 

[Buddy Shula]

Ownership seems to be pimping out its "commercial-free" music channels to labels, artists and other entities increasingly often. One of the Christmas channels is sponsored by Hallmark. I doubt the channel's figurehead programmer at SiriusXM (if there is one; maybe someone at Hallmark dictates the entire playlist and rotation) has any thought of focusing on the listener, just rubber-stamping whatever tunes Hallmark wants played.

You are not correct about this. There is a Pd for every Station at Sirius. Underwriting or sponsorships are not as intrusive an 8 minute commercial stop set. My gues is that hallmark and Sirius have a partnership where Sirius is getting some kind of airtime on the hallmark channel. Hallmark is a name that is synonymous with holidays, why wouldn’t Sirius want to mention them? It adds credibility