Paragon's Mike Henry Applauds Caroline Beasley's Idea To Generate Smart Speaker Monetization

Mike Henry

In a new post on its blog, PARAGON MEDIA STRATEGIES CEO MIKE HENRY lauded a proposal from BEASLEY BROADCAST GROUP CEO CAROLINE BEASLEY made in a recent podcast on smart speaker monetization, where she noted that “as online listening numbers grow, the pay-to-play model that has increased costs with each new listener should be replaced with one based on a company’s revenue.”

In DECEMBER 2017 blog post, HENRY lamented that listenership through smart speaker streaming had no way of being reimbursed through revenue. "Monetizing smart speaker audiences is currently elusive," he wrote. "If your station simulcasts the broadcast signal on your stream, then that’s a win for your advertisers who pay for broadcast ads and are essentially getting the smart speaker audience for free. If your station uses ad replacements on the stream, then it’s possible that it may help raise streaming cost per thousand pricing, but so far there is no evidence of that happening.”

BEASLEY's new proposal, however, "is exactly the solution that radio needs to balance the growth of streaming vs. the difficulty in leveraging streaming listening, especially smart speakers, into new revenue," HENRY wrote. "CAROLINE BEASLEY should be applauded for taking a leadership position in an industry sorely lacking leadership."

Check it all out here.

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