The Sun newspaper is to launch an online radio station called Sun Talk, on April 20th.
The Sun newspaper is to launch an online radio station called Sun Talk, with former talkSPORT presenter Jon Gaunt at the helm. The station is part of parent company News International's £1m investment in the television and radio studios.
Gaunt will be "on-air" every weekday morning for three hours from 10am till 1pm, with guests such as Conservative leader David Cameron MP.
The station aims to attract 150,000 online listeners in its first year.
Launching in a month yet I haven't seen them advertise for staff!
Murdoch will throw away money on maintaining market share by keeping his newspapers artificially low in price, such as the Saturday Times at £1 and The Sun at 30p. (The Mirror is 45p)
This project will probably be seen as a spin-off from the Sun's website to the average visitor.
When you compare that to Play Radio UK which get just under 100 for an average show (not featuring a BNP representative) the figure they quote is pretty impressive.
When you compare that to Play Radio UK which get just under 100 for an average show (not featuring a BNP representative) the figure they quote is pretty impressive.
However Play Radio UK doesn't enjoy the free advertising that the Sun station will have through the newspaper which despite the downturn, is the most popular tabloid.
If this latest Murdoch venture has 1,000 listeners on it's first broadcast, I'll be impressed. Even if it doesn't, Murdoch doesn't just give up easily, thelondonpaper is still going despite still losing money, but his venture into womens weeklies with Love it failed as the publication was sold last year.
"The station aims to attract 150,000 online listeners in its first year."
One has to assume that means clicks on the stream at some point in the year? Or being generous, unique users (in RAJAR terms if it existed, "annual reach") including rubberneckers there on the first day and people who Google "biggest tits in the Sun" and end up there by mistake.
If that's an aim for a "proper" audience of 150 thousand (eg weekly reach), then I aim to be Executive Chairman of News International, have fathered children with all four Spice Girls and have my name on Swiss bank accounts totalling $US14bn by the same time.
A radio station which is on-air for 3 hours a day - not including breakfast - with a single talk-host who is a bit of an acquired taste?
LBC gets 850 thousand listeners across the UK.. the vast majority of them (about 780 thousand) on proper radio in London. For 70 thousand online (and other non-London outlets?), LBC provides 2 stations which between them must put out about ten times as much programming per day as the Sun will do.
On the three measures I've suggested:
Hits - they may do that, but so what.
UUs - possibly.. but if you excluded all those who listened for less than 5 minutes in the year (stumblers), you'd be well down.
Weekly Reach - I'll eat my own right foot if they get anywhere close
"The station aims to attract 150,000 online listeners in its first year."
Who's doing the PR here, Ryan Dunlop?:eek:
I just laughed a bit of wee into my pants.
But really - look at it in terms of PR here. "150,000 online listeners in its first year" sounds like a ridiculous number, but what does "online listeners" actually *mean*? Unique listeners? Cumulative listeners? 150k in a year isn't unattainable when you do some simple maths.
Gaunt is relatively well-known, and The Stun has a loyal readership base, and you know they're going to plug the snot out of the station every available opportunity, all day every day. So let's say that it attracts an average of 300 people listen to his show every day, either via the online stream or podcast, which is probably where they'll get their higher daily numbers. 300 per day, for 365 days a year puts them at 109,500 "listeners". Even if they are the same people listening every day, they'll still count it. Who wouldn't? It's a business, and businesses will always put their more attractive numbers first. Sell the sizzle, as it were.
But that still leaves us 50,000 short. So, let's assume that they have at least one other show on there that has a loyal listener base of... say... 150 listeners per day. 150 x 365 = 54,750. A grand total of 164,250 "listeners" in a year. And that's with dodgy maths. Naturally they're not going to get the same number of listeners every day, but even if they only get 130,000 in a year, they can still claim that they were close to the target.
I wouldn't be surprised if the silent Gaunty fan majority who used to listen to him on talkSPORT (target listeners - Sun/Daily Star readers) will tune in.
I find it so funny that the anoraks who infest this forum can't see that internet radio is the way forward.
DAB is dead, commercial radio is dying and the Sun and Tommy Boyd try to do something new and unregulated and the very people who say they love radio come on here and slag it off even before it has started!
As for SunTalk I reckon they will hit the target easily as they have over 3 million people who buy the paper everyday and millions who hit the website.
Also I can't see them just sticking with only one show for long, if I was talkSPORT or LBC I would be very concerned about ad revenues.
The Sun is an enormous brand.
Finally what about internet radio sets coming down ion price and mobiles more and more offering free or unlimited data that will lead to an inevitable rise in internet listening.
So stop living in the past and get with the project
Bingethink
Posts: 4,257
Comments
What could it all mean?!?
Not many staff, sourced from inside the paper.
I thought the Sky News Radio studio was to be based at BSkyB which is in a different location to The Sun and News International?
I can't really see many people rushing to their internet radios to tune into Jon Gaunt for three hours and then ...nothing !
The station's first guest will be Conservative leader David Cameron MP as the paper tries to align itself with a more upmarket audience.
http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/bulletin/breakingnews/article/891865/?DCMP=EMC-MediaWeekBreakingNews
How is Jon Gaunt upmarket?
Glad I'm not in the sales team for that one.
The £1-million was being spent on radio & TV facilities. Mind you, that could mean Gaunt will be in vision too!!!!
...and that's just for his mouth!
Murdoch will throw away money on maintaining market share by keeping his newspapers artificially low in price, such as the Saturday Times at £1 and The Sun at 30p. (The Mirror is 45p)
This project will probably be seen as a spin-off from the Sun's website to the average visitor.
Gaunt's backside more like it, that's where most of his advice comes from.
What's up wouldn't Tommy give him a show on Playradio UK?
I think Boyd would have been desperate to sign him.
However Play Radio UK doesn't enjoy the free advertising that the Sun station will have through the newspaper which despite the downturn, is the most popular tabloid.
If this latest Murdoch venture has 1,000 listeners on it's first broadcast, I'll be impressed. Even if it doesn't, Murdoch doesn't just give up easily, thelondonpaper is still going despite still losing money, but his venture into womens weeklies with Love it failed as the publication was sold last year.
One has to assume that means clicks on the stream at some point in the year? Or being generous, unique users (in RAJAR terms if it existed, "annual reach") including rubberneckers there on the first day and people who Google "biggest tits in the Sun" and end up there by mistake.
If that's an aim for a "proper" audience of 150 thousand (eg weekly reach), then I aim to be Executive Chairman of News International, have fathered children with all four Spice Girls and have my name on Swiss bank accounts totalling $US14bn by the same time.
A radio station which is on-air for 3 hours a day - not including breakfast - with a single talk-host who is a bit of an acquired taste?
LBC gets 850 thousand listeners across the UK.. the vast majority of them (about 780 thousand) on proper radio in London. For 70 thousand online (and other non-London outlets?), LBC provides 2 stations which between them must put out about ten times as much programming per day as the Sun will do.
On the three measures I've suggested:
Hits - they may do that, but so what.
UUs - possibly.. but if you excluded all those who listened for less than 5 minutes in the year (stumblers), you'd be well down.
Weekly Reach - I'll eat my own right foot if they get anywhere close
But really - look at it in terms of PR here. "150,000 online listeners in its first year" sounds like a ridiculous number, but what does "online listeners" actually *mean*? Unique listeners? Cumulative listeners? 150k in a year isn't unattainable when you do some simple maths.
Gaunt is relatively well-known, and The Stun has a loyal readership base, and you know they're going to plug the snot out of the station every available opportunity, all day every day. So let's say that it attracts an average of 300 people listen to his show every day, either via the online stream or podcast, which is probably where they'll get their higher daily numbers. 300 per day, for 365 days a year puts them at 109,500 "listeners". Even if they are the same people listening every day, they'll still count it. Who wouldn't? It's a business, and businesses will always put their more attractive numbers first. Sell the sizzle, as it were.
But that still leaves us 50,000 short. So, let's assume that they have at least one other show on there that has a loyal listener base of... say... 150 listeners per day. 150 x 365 = 54,750. A grand total of 164,250 "listeners" in a year. And that's with dodgy maths. Naturally they're not going to get the same number of listeners every day, but even if they only get 130,000 in a year, they can still claim that they were close to the target.
Would they even be able to log-on unsupervised?
DAB is dead, commercial radio is dying and the Sun and Tommy Boyd try to do something new and unregulated and the very people who say they love radio come on here and slag it off even before it has started!
As for SunTalk I reckon they will hit the target easily as they have over 3 million people who buy the paper everyday and millions who hit the website.
Also I can't see them just sticking with only one show for long, if I was talkSPORT or LBC I would be very concerned about ad revenues.
The Sun is an enormous brand.
Finally what about internet radio sets coming down ion price and mobiles more and more offering free or unlimited data that will lead to an inevitable rise in internet listening.
So stop living in the past and get with the project