Google Radio: Clear Channel to Offer Inventory

In a deal very consistent with the recent EchoStar/Dish Network announcement, and to some degree its print program, Google is announcing an arrangement to sell ad inventory on Clear Channel’s radio network. According to the NY Times:

But the partnership with Clear Channel represents a step forward for Google. The deal will run for several years, and will give Google access to just under 5 percent of Clear Channel’s commercial time. That will include 30-second spots on all of Clear Channel’s 675 stations during all programs and all times of the day, executives at both companies said in interviews yesterday.

The companies did not disclose the financial details of the arrangement, except to say that Clear Channel would receive the majority of the ad revenue.

There’s both a national and a local ad play here. Radio is one of the audiences Eric Schmidt has said Google cannot reach with search (e.g., “drive time”). And this move seems to erase (at least at the PR level) the persistent problems Google has been reportedly having with its radio efforts and dMarc.

Google says its focus will be to bring its advertisers into radio and, by implication, not seek to establish relationships with existing Clear Channel advertisers. This is the same proposition being offered to the newspapers as part of Google’s print program: new advertisers, not your advertisers.

Two things are remarkable here to me: this comes about two days after DoubleClick and under two weeks after Dish. What it means is that Google has now got at least hypothetically viable ad programs across the board: paid search, display (including rich media/video), print newspapers, radio, TV — with perhaps outdoor to come.

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Here’s the WSJ’s (sub req’d) coverage. Here’s the press release and the official Google post. Here’s a related announcement regarding AdSense for Audio.

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