Unlock the secrets of what’s driving local advertising in 2024 as BIA's Nicole Ovadia and Rick Ducey discuss the firm’s March update to the 2024 U.S. Local Ad Forecast. They explain the backdrop behind the adjusted estimate of $172 billion, which is buoyed by political advertising, now pegged at $11.1 billion. Plus, hear how Connected TV (CTV)/Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms are impacting the campaign trail, offering data-driven, high-quality avenues for even the smallest players to get their message across.

In this general election year, CTV has become even more important for political and issue campaign media investments. As local inventory has increased and programmatic trading making it easier and more powerful to activate specific audience segments and optimize those buys, CTV is benefiting from significant tailwinds in 2024.   Premion’s head of sales, John Vilade joins BIA’s Leading Local Insights podcast for a discussion about where CTV is headed in 2024. John has a solid sales leadership background in linear, CTV, programmatic, and ad tech with positions at Premion and also with earlier leadership positions at NBCU, Hulu, Discovery Networks, and TRUSTX.Topics covered include CTV political spending, FAST services and CTV, buyers’ intentions for local CTV in 2024, and audience currency and attribution.

In this podcast episode, BIA's Nicole Ovadia interviews Jay Loeffler, the Chief Revenue Officer of Valpak, to explore the significance and adaptability of direct mail in a world dominated by digital channels. They discuss attribution, political crowd-out, the complementary nature of direct mail to TV and radio advertising, the economic reasonings behind advertiser decisions, and the impact of continuously changing consumer behaviors, which includes how Gen Z is rediscovering the allure of physical mail.As Loeffler explains, direct mail bridges the gap from browsing to conversion by delivering tailored content and deals that resonate with consumers across various demographics.Listen now and download (here) a recent survey of local businesses and their plans and priorities for advertising in 2024.

BIA analysts analyze upcoming trends that will greatly impact the local advertising industry in 2024. They discuss a range of topics including local political advertising, the growing influence of AI, the emergence of retail media networks, the rise of social platforms like TikTok, the influence of consumer behavior on media, and the popularity of short-form videos. In this fast-paced roundtable discussion, the team covers key subjects related to business categories and media trends.

Ready to understand what’s behind the rapidly growing Retail Media Networks (RMNs)? RMNs are transforming the local advertising landscape, and industry titans like Amazon and Walmart are leading the charge. In this podcast, BIA’s Rick Ducey and Leyla Chatti analyze RMNs, dissecting its allure to retailers, consumers, the investment dynamics, and the key players shaping this landscape. Plus, they compare and contrast retail media networks against traditional paid media platforms. Listen now to hear how traditional paid media platforms like radio and TV can form symbiotic partnerships with retail media networks to boost their digital ad spending. Download the report, Retail Media Networks (RMNs): A Local Perspective, here.

What does the future hold for local news and sports? As the world shifts to streaming, the answer isn't as straightforward as you might think. We discuss this complex topic with our guest Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at TV Rev. The author of the report, "TV Rev’s Perils and Promise in the Age of Streaming," Alan has been working with stations to help them redefine what success looks like in this space. During this podcast, Alan offers his take on the possibilities available for local TV groups to blend their linear and streaming platforms to reach audiences of all ages. He also touches on the game-changing implications of geo-targeting, and the pressing need for a cross-platform currency and consensus on audience measurement. Listen now to this engaging discussion focused on possibilities of the near future.

BIA welcomes Kevin Ruppenthal, Director of Operations at SpectraRep, and John McCoskey, Chief Operating Officer of SpectraRep to discuss CPB’s Next Generation Warning System Grant Program. This grant presents an important and immediate opportunity for local broadcasters. Year one of the grant is a $40 million program available to public broadcast television and radio stations for funding equipment upgrades with a focus on enhanced alerting and warning capabilities, including ATSC 3.0 for television stations.  Listen now to learn about the grant’s goals, what’s covered and who’s eligible. Kevin and John also explain the three steps to follow immediately to apply by the deadline. More details on applying here.

Todd Handy, Chief Revenue Officer at SEBPO, and BIA’s Rick Ducey unpack the ongoing transformation of local media companies to cross-media advertising platforms in this enlightening podcast discussion.Listen to hear how media companies can scale revenue, save on expenses, and succeed for advertising clients. Todd discusses how media companies can leverage business process outsourcing to generate revenue and maximize performance. He also shares a real-life example of a local media company netting over 50% digital revenue and delivering robust performance metrics. A well-respected executive, Todd was Beasley Media Group’s first Chief Digital Officer before SEBPO. At Beasley, he led the company’s fast-growing digital media business, realizing a 165% increase in digital revenue over three years. In addition to his role at SEBPO, Todd is a member of the Local Media Association’s Board of Directors, serves on various sales and digital marketing advisory boards, and is a former member of the Local Media Consortium’s Executive Committee.

BIA issued an update to its 2023 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast in late June 2023. Economic and industry factors – plus input from BIA’s annual surveying of media companies - were reasons behind the adjusted estimates. In this podcast, get a sense of BIA’s expectations for local advertising revenue this year across media channels like TV, Radio, CTV/OTT, and more. Then, hear about the opportunities for the second half of 2023.  BIA’s Nicole Ovadia, VP Forecasting & Analysis, is interviewed by BIA’s Director of Data Insights & Client Relations, Mark Dugan.

In this first episode of Verticals in the Spotlight, BIA analysts focus on two large and important verticals for local advertising – Mattress & Sleep Centers and Furniture Stores.  Listen now to hear how these verticals have recovered from the pandemic, the top media channels attracting the most advertising dollars for each vertical and what opportunities are emerging for local sellers.

Over sixty-five thousand people attended the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas April 16-19. NAB’s Centennial Show, the event covered the latest trends and innovations in the industry. Get a perspective on three important topics from BIA’s Managing Director, Rick Ducey when he shares what he saw and heard around ATSC 3.0, hybrid radio, and AI. Rick explains what each means to the broadcast industry and what we can all expect next.

“Future forward” is the mantra of Sinclair’s COO and President of Broadcast. Rob Weisbord. This means taking care of business today but committing to believing in a future with significant opportunities that are possible to create.In this podcast with BIA’s managing director, Rick Ducey, Rob shares his vision for how local TV groups can target not just TV spending but the full “share of wallet.” Local TV will be about a $19 billion business in 2023 according to BIA. However, all local paid media spending will total $165 billion. That’s the target Rob has for Sinclair. Getting there requires culture change, a unified ad platform, and dynamic pricing to maximize revenue yield. All while keeping an eye to the future for platforms like ATSC 3.0 that deliver new possibilities to provide enhanced services to traditional media audiences and advertising and opportunities to enter new markets. Rob’s got a full plate from vision to implementation and shares how he sees it all happening in this thought stimulating podcast episode.

Roger Lanctot, Director, Automotive Connected Mobility in the Global Automotive Practice at TechInsights, joins our podcast this week to talk about the intersection of connected cars and local ad-supported media. For starters, just as Google has found great value in targeting ads based on intent derived from signals in user searches, so too does the car generate contextual signals that can be used to target ads. Roger spoke about how Mercedes is working with Google to unbundle some of their tech so it will work with its MBOS – Mercedes Benz Operating System. This novel partnership is an important waypoint in creating more media functionality in connected cars. Roger also spoke about innovations for in-car radio such as Xperi’s DTS AutoStage and GeoBroadcast Solutions’ ZoneCasting as further examples of creating more ad-supported functionality for in-car users looking for their favorite local media.

In this episode, BIA’s Leyla Chatti speaks with Timur Yarnall, co-founder of Neutronian, to discuss the implications of media privacy and data compliance in the local advertising space. Both Chatti and Yarnall examine leading trends in Martech and address the use of AI in an environment where privacy is constantly challenging targeting abilities and impacting the effectiveness of local advertising.  Yarnall, a subject matter expert on data, is a seasoned and successful executive and technology entrepreneur. He has co-founded four start-up companies focused on data privacy and consumer trust, including his most recent projects Neutronian and Neeva.com. He also co-founded MdotLabs, which was acquired by ComScore, an advertising and media evaluation company.

BIA estimates the Home Improvement vertical will spend over $9.7 billion in local advertising in 2023. Direct mail is still a dominant ad channel for this vertical, but Mobile, TV Digital and Radio Digital are all growing. Listen to this podcast now to get top takeaways from oneof BIA’s most popular reports on local advertising. BIA analysts share thecompany’s expectations for advertising spend across media channels and identifythe top spending sub-verticals within Home Improvement. Clients can download the full report from BIA ADVantage. The report can also be purchased in here. (Podcast listeners: enjoy promo codePODCAST10 to save 10% on the price.)

In this podcast, BIA’s Managing Director, Rick Ducey, and Lynn Claudy, SPV Technology at NAB, discuss the winding road for ATSC 3.0, where the industry is advancing and where it needs help particularly from the FCC. Claudy also profiles all the Next Gen sessions, events, and booths at the NAB Show taking place in Las Vegas April 15-19, 2023.Lynn Claudy sits in a leadership role at the intersection of ATSC3 technology development and market rollout with his positions at including NAB (SVP Technology), ATSC (immediate past chair), and the FCC (Tech Advisory Council) among other industry affiliations.  ATSC3 is now in its “lighthouse phase” whereby local TV stations must share frequency on just one or two TV stations in a market to host all ATSC1 services to free up other spectrum to introduce ATSC3 services. At some point the stations acting as “lighthouses” to serve as a common host for a market’s ATSC 1.0 service will also transition to ATSC 3.0 for a complete cutover to the new NextGen TV service as it is branded in the consumer market. Listen now to get an update on industry activities.

A long under-utilized but growing asset in local radio’s ad portfolio is in-screen visual display inventory comprising text and images. Basic RDS technology available in 70-80 percent of cars on the road allows FM broadcaster to deliver program and advertising content. For maybe a quarter of the cars on the radio with HD Radio receivers, images can also be sent. As radio searches for new pockets of revenue growth opportunities, in-dash visual ad inventory is becoming a thing for major groups. Quu’s CEO Steve Newberry joins us for this podcast episode to explain the visual radio ad ecosystem and opportunities local radio stations can target with this technology.

2023 brings new services and new revenue opportunities in the world of datacasting across broadcast television. BIA is forecasting $10 billion in non-core revenue in the local TV industry by 2030 (over and above advertising and retransmission revenue). Is the industry on the path to that revenue potential? What advancements are happening in datacasting to lead the way there?   Our guests are experts in broadcast, ATSC, and NextGen television. John McCoskey, COO of SpectraRep along with SpectraRep President Mark O’Brien, bringing you a conversation about the current state of datacasting services and new, non-core revenue opportunities for television stations.

In this podcast, BIA’s VP of Forecasting Nicole Ovadia shares her advertising expectations for Over-the-Top (OTT) local advertising this year. Then she asks Rick Ducey, BIA’s Managing Director, a series of questions we get a lot when analyzing this growing media channel.Listen now to hear about the verticals investing in OTT advertising, the distinctions between OTT and CTV, the increasing connections between OTA TV and OTT and how OTT is being sold.

In this special podcast episode, BIA’s CEO, Tom Buono, sits down with legendary radio executive, Jeff Smulyan to discuss Jeff’s new book, “Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down” that offers captivating insights into what it takes to be an entrepreneur through good and bad times. Best known as founder and CEO of Emmis Communications, Jeff’s winding career has taken him from law school to radio station ownership and to Major League Baseball team ownership.In this podcast, Tom asks Jeff to share some of his “rollercoaster” experiences including his creation of the first all sports radio station (WFAN in NYC) which wasn’t a huge hit at first, to creating award winning rock stations, like KSHE in St. Louis, and how he created a diverse collation of programming to attract young adult contemporary listeners (KPWR in Los Angeles) that delivered the right notes, no pun intended, to become consistent 10 share station.Jeff and Tom also speak to the chaotic on/off love relationship Wall Street has had with the radio industry over the years and radios continuing value within local communities. For anyone aspiring to be an entrepreneur, Jeff shares countless lessons from his decades of experience both on this podcast and in his book, which can be purchased on Amazon here.