iHeartMedia Acquires Radio Tech Platform Jelli

iHeartMedia announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Jelli, the company behind the SoundPoint platform which enables  programmatic buying and selling broadcast radio ad time. The acquisition, which is designed to help radio compete with the kind of targeted advertising that digital services offer, comes just as iHeart appears to be emerging from bankruptcy.

iHeartMedia, which has been using some Jelli technology since 2005, will leverage the acquisition to create a digital-compatible buying platform for broadcast radio that includes targeting and creative optimization based on data and attribution tools compatible with the offerings of the major digital players.

“Expressway from Katz,” the industry’s programmatic buying ad exchange for several other radio groups, will continue to remain independently run by Katz, powered by Jelli.

Jelli's  current offerings include RadioSpot, a programmatic platform for radio broadcasters to sell and manage their advertising inventory and SpotPlan, a programmatic platform for radio, delivering agencies and advertisers an automated way to efficiently plan and buy audio advertising and providing access to iHeartMedia as well as Expressway from Katz. 

“Facebook and Google pioneered a new way for advertisers to interface with media partners to improve targetability, the ease of buying and measurement of results, and our programmatic platform puts us in the position to participate in the modern data driven ecosystem for our broadcast radio audience as well as our digital audiences,” said Brian Kaminsky, President of SmartAudio and Analytics Group for iHeartMedia.  “We have been excited by the advances we made with Jelli as our partner and the acceptance from our advertising partners.”

“At iHeart we believe marketing is both math and magic.  The math is our rich data and insights about our users and how they relate to our partners’ products and services — and the magic is the incredible creative ideas we bring to our partners, such as our iconic music events, award shows, influencers, podcasts, social reach and our unique on air promotions. Jelli allows us to do something no other company can do — advertisers can now buy and use our broadcast assets, reach and impact just as they use the major digital players. We now offer heavy data and heavy creative innovation all in one place,” said Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Inc. “We are excited about having Jelli not only for the platforms they are creating and have created for us, but also to lead our aggressive and innovative ad tech development.”