First Google, now eBay

Ace Purple · Post by **Ace Purple** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:23 am

eBay To Auction Radio Spots

Online auctioneer eBay said yesterday (6/5) it will begin auctioning advertising airtime on 2,300 participating US radio stations.

The move, which puts eBay into competition with web search leader Googleâ€™s recent expansion into radio advertising, involved eBay partnering with Bid4Spots to power what it calls the eBay Media Marketplace for Radio.

eBay said that the new US auction market for radio advertising will include both terrestrial and Internet radio advertising. Stations in all of the 300 top-ranked radio markets are covered.

Added eBay spokeswoman Kim Rubey: "Available inventory is determined by participating radio stations and what they choose to sell for the next week.â€

Arp2 · Post by **Arp2** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:09 am

If your competitor is participating and you're not, buy spots for yourself and see if they get caught before they run.

Ace Purple · Post by **Ace Purple** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 12:06 pm

Arp2 wrote:If your competitor is participating and you're not, buy spots for yourself and see if they get caught before they run.

That's a very clever idea. I'd think that there would be a system of checking for such things for the stations involved, but if not...

ashton · Post by **ashton** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:54 pm

I love everything about the ebay and google ad auctions. This guarantees a true market price based on supply and demand. I've always been in favor of selling ads on a s&d basis. I was just never sure how to actually calculate fair market value. No need now.

David Paleg · Post by **David Paleg** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:34 pm

I can just imagine the scene.....

[Interior of sales office, Megastation Radio Corp]

William Shatner: A new car dealership just opened on Corridor G. They would like to advertise twice a day, just drive times. What can you do for them.
Sales Manager: Well, I can let you have it for... *Gets out rate card*
Shatner: Too expensive. *Fires phaser at rate card. It goes up like flash paper. Rubs his toupee on desk.* Surely you can do better.
Sales Manager: How about this? *Writes figure on piece of paper.* And don't call me Shirley.
Shatner: Priceline does it again. Promise.

304live · Post by **304live** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:55 am

any local stations among those participating?

Tom Taggart · Post by **Tom Taggart** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 6:18 pm

Three words to strike fear into the hearts of any sales/general manager during an upcoming election year:

"Lowest Unit Charge"

Big Media · Post by **Big Media** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:10 pm

Tom Taggart wrote:Three words to strike fear into the hearts of any sales/general manager during an upcoming election year:

"Lowest Unit Charge"

Yeah... That's when you start to see those Big Sandy bonus spots dry up as well.

SPIKE NESMITH! · Post by **SPIKE NESMITH!** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:04 am

A++++++ QUICK DELIVERY WOULD BUY TIME ON AGAI

Tom Taggart · Post by **Tom Taggart** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 1:22 pm

Here's an article on lowest unit rate and auctioned spots:

"Will On-Line Spot Auctions Have an Impact on Lowest Unit Rate? - Only the FCC Knows For Sure"

"Last weekâ€™s announcement of the partnership between eBay and Bid4Spots and the impending full launch of Googleâ€™s service to sell online radio spots beg for FCC action to clarify how these services will be treated for lowest unit rate purposes. We have written about this issue before (see our note here), and the increasing number of online sales tools for broadcast advertising inventory highlights the issue. If advertisers can buy spots using these online systems on a single station, or if stations offer their spots to a particular advertiser at a set price for a specific class of spot, it would seem that these spots could have an effect on the stationâ€™s lowest unit rate if the spots sold through the online systems run during lowest unit rate periods (45 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election.). For the peace of mind for all broadcasters, it would be worth the FCC clarifying the status of these services as we hurtle toward what will probably be the busiest political year ever."

full article here....