Bid4Spots Brings Unique Reverse Auction Model to Internet Radio, Creates New Marketplace for Independent Broadcasters Serving 42 Million Listeners

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a move that creates a marketplace where none currently exists, Bid4Spots (www.bid4spots.com) today announced that it is adapting its patent-pending reverse auction model to facilitate buying and selling advertising for independent online radio. Bid4Spots made the announcement in conjunction with ad:techNY, here through Nov. 8.

After just a year in operation, Bid4Spots’ marketplace for terrestrial radio is used by 2,300 radio stations nationwide, 900 advertisers and more than 180 ad agencies – effectively making it the largest radio advertising network in the country.

Applying the same principle – a reverse auction where stations compete for advertisers’ dollars and bid the ad rates down – Bid4Spots aims to harness what so far has been considered too fragmented to tame: the frontier of independent online-only radio broadcasting. The first auction will take place Jan. 16, 2007, and will continue each Tuesday thereafter. For a demo, visit http://www.bid4spots.com/InternetRadio/.

“We’re creating an entirely new marketplace for a huge group of broadcasters and advertisers who want an easy and profitable way to do business with each other,” said Dave Newmark, Bid4Spots CEO and advertising industry pioneer. “We’re opening up the opportunities in a big way for all involved – and in the process expanding our own business into one of the most exciting new advertising channels today. It’s the perfect complement to our terrestrial model.”

An Arbitron/Edison Media Research study (“The Infinite Dial: Radio’s Digital Platforms”) reports that 52 million Americans listened to Internet radio over a one-month period earlier this year; industry observers estimate that about 42 million of those listeners tune in to an estimated 25,000 independent online broadcasters. But so far, there’s been no effective way to aggregate the independents on a common platform for advertisers who want to reach those listeners. Despite their reach, these independent broadcasters receive little or no revenue, and are essentially invisible to the advertising community.

To create this marketplace, Bid4Spots partnered with Spacial Audio Solutions, the largest supplier of Internet radio software and services to independent broadcasters, and is using the company’s StreamAdz™ as its central platform to schedule, track and manage the advertising. Rockie Thomas, a nationally known Internet radio expert and former director of sales and marketing for Spacial Audio, recognized that the company’s reverse-auction model would be an ideal fit for the Internet radio space and approached Bid4Spots with the concept.

“Independent broadcasters are motivated by passion for their formats, rather than by profit – but most would love to serve ads and make some money if they could find a way to make it work,” said Thomas, who now serves as business development manager for Bid4Spots. “Bid4Spots is it. Its online reverse auction lets advertisers and agencies reach this fragmented market of independent broadcasters from one place.”

“This is pretty revolutionary, it’s the kind of thing that changes the way we buy Internet radio,” said Michael Guarnieri, radio media manager for Citrix Online. “The independent online broadcasters have targeted, loyal audiences of people who tune in from around the country for the specialized content. The demographics are desirable for our ‘remote access’ (GoToMyPC) and ‘collaboration’ (GoToMeeting) solutions – listeners are affluent and tech-savvy and generally spend more time listening online. The reverse auction model lets stations compete for my business, bidding my prices down – giving me a new uncluttered advertising channel at an incredible bargain.”

About Bid4Spots

Based in Encino, Calif., Bid4Spots transforms the often ineffective process of buying and selling last-minute radio spots with the industry’s first CPM-based reverse auction. Created by ad agency veteran Dave Newmark, Bid4Spots leverages the Internet to offer a flexible, fast solution that increases radio stations’ revenues by helping them leave no daypart unsold, while broadening access to radio airtime for advertisers willing to forego the selection of specific stations and advance planning, in return for much lower ad rates.