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Bob Pittman Talks Revenue For iHeartRadio, Royalty Deals
June 18, 2014 at 3:26 PM (PT)
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At the same time CLEAR CHANNEL was touting iHEARTRADIO reaching the 50-million-registered-user milestone (NET NEWS 6/16), CEO BOB PITTMAN claimed that iHEARTRADIO generates “hundreds of millions” of dollars in revenue a year, which would put it in the ballpark of PANDORA, the WASHINGTON POST reports.
“We’re in the hundreds of millions, not billions,” he said. “iHEARTRADIO would be a very valuable company on its own. In the grand scheme of things, it’s an extension of the other businesses we’re in.”
In its year-end regulatory filing,CLEAR CHANNEL reported that iHEARTRADIO averaged 143 million hours of listening per month last year, up 29% from a year earlier. In contrast, PANDORA MEDIA had 1.73 billion listener hours in MAY, after generating $638 million in revenue last year.
On a related note, In a FORBES interview, PITTMAN didn't seem overly concerned about the possibility that streaming would overtake over-the-air radio.“Music collections always replace each other and radio always tends to be yet another choice,” he said. “Satellite didn’t kill FM. AM didn’t kill FM. (Streaming music) one more choice and one more device you can listen to the radio on.”
When the subject of CLEAR CHANNEL's revenue deals with labels was broached, PITTMAN wasn't too eager to pull the trigger on more deals because they "currently create more expenses than benefits ... We’re investing a lot of money because we believe it’s the right way to build the future,” PITTMAN said. “I think we’ll get a payoff on it one day and we’ll build a digital marketplace in which everybody wins.”

