The Radio Agency Warns of the Coming Sports Apocalypse

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa., June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time in history, America's four, major sports leagues are scheduled to play regular season or playoff games in the same calendar month, thanks to scheduling shuffles caused by COVID-19. 

Regular season NFL Football and MLB Baseball games would compete for viewers and listeners against NBA Basketball and NHL Hockey playoff games.  Combined with NCAA Football coverage, radio and television stations and networks are posed to carry more than 5,000 hours of live sports coverage in the month of September 2020, generating record-breaking sports ad revenues.

"That's great news for fans, but costly news for advertisers," says Mark Lipsky, CEO of The Radio Agency, the national advertising agency exclusively focused on audio advertising.  "Having all four, major sports leagues in action at once creates a scenario where sports advertisers will compete for broadcast time during the same month, rather than spread out across the year."

With a finite number of advertising minutes available each hour, increased competition for advertising time will likely drive rates higher, likely setting revenue records for the broadcast month of September.

SportsTalk radio stations and networks, currently fumbling to fill 24-hour days with program content without referencing last night's loss or tonight's rematch, will suddenly be overflowing with conversation topics in addition to live coverage of game action. 

"We expect stations and networks to test the upper limits of how many commercials they can air and how high they can boost their rates," says Lipsky.  "They'll want to recoup some of the lost advertising revenues from spring and sports-starved fans will assure them of strong ratings at a time when NFL Football alone typically generates their best ratings of the year."

Beyond traditional commercial advertising, demand should also run high for peripheral marketing opportunities like Studio Naming Rights and Daily or Weekly Programming Features on SportsTalk radio stations.

Lipsky suggests that advertisers start media planning now and lock in their fall advertising schedules as soon as possible before this "perfect storm" of professional sports makes advertising inventory scarce. 

Game on.

CONTACT:
Barbra Tabnick, The Radio Agency
(610) 357-4019  
[email protected]
www.TheRadioAgency.com

SOURCE The Radio Agency

Related Links

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