UK commercial radio has a problem. Commercials. The major networks (Capital, Hits, GHR, Heart) go to ads at the same time. Poor experience for the listener. Surely a network would want to beat the rush and be the first back out of the break to capture stray audience?
— Matthew Hemmaty (@mhemmaty) February 3, 2022
The standard clock of three almost evenly spaced breaks, often including news on the hour, reduces the number of interruptions to music (important for the aforementioned brands) and achieves the rate of impacts bought by agencies on a cost-per-thousand basis.
While in an ideal world they wouldn’t exist, as consumers, we’re accustomed to ads and understand the necessity of them.
If they were such a turn-off, commercial radio’s reach would never have overtaken the BBC nor would it enjoy the 47% share it has today.
Not to mention that in 2005, GCap gambled halving ad minutage on 95.8 - it didn’t pay off, literally losing millions in revenue, and Capital’s audience continued to decline YoY. So it wasn’t that.
All that being said, we will reach a time where a heavy ad load - totalling a quarter of a commercial radio hour - is no longer sustainable and groups will need to diversify (e.g. Bauer testing subscription services and The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky).
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