AOL Radio Cuts Number Of Commercials To Compete With Pandora

Fewer Spots

AOL's online radio service is relaunching TODAY (10/19), now powered by SLACKER, with half the number of commercials as it ran before, targeting PANDORA for listeners. BUSINESSWEEK.COM reports, "The company will insert about three minutes of audio ads an hour, LISA NAMEROW, GM of AOL MUSIC and AOL RADIO said in an interview. PANDORA airs three 15-second commercials an hour, CFO STEVE CAKEBREAD said at a SEPTEMBER 22nd investor conference."

"The most common complaint we would get from users was the number of audio commercials we ran," NAMEROW said. "It's something they really hated."

BUSINESSWEEK notes "the new features, reduction in ads and redesigned music navigation are aimed at reversing a 25% drop in AOL RADIO users from a year ago, NAMEROW said. The service averages about three million users a month."

"That's our secret sauce," NAMEROW said to BUSINESSWEEK. "We program our stations individually, while larger competitors might use more of a formula."

Look for AOL to offer a $3.99-a-month radio plus service that excludes audio advertisements in NOVEMBER.

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