Cornwall's 105 to 107 Itchy FM - Ofcom Licensing

Net Advertising Revenue 382.3 463.7 543.6
Net Sponsorship & Co-funding (net) 193 200 220
Commercial Production Revenue 25.1 30.3 34.9
TURNOVER 600.4 694 798.5
These revenue streams are well researched; we have conducted detailed studies and consultation,
including ongoing discussions with intended brand partners and radio industry comparisons.
Summarised below are the methods we intend to use to ensure the forecasts revenues are attained.
o Local Advertising Sales
Advertising sales will be the backbone of the radio station, providing 60% of revenue. Commercials will
be priced at rates which are competitive, enabling local advertisers to utilise a medium which appeals to
young adults across the county. We anticipate selling up to 50% of available advertising airtime in year
one, ensuring airtime values are retained and output is not over-cluttered with spot airtime. We
recognise that many local advertisers, especially smaller independent businesses, will not see the
benefit of coverage across the whole of Cornwall. For this reason, our budgets make provision for split
advertising across the East and West transmission areas. This enables us to offer lower cost and more
effective advertising for our customer. Our revenue projections exclude any growth in ratecard,
favouring audience growth and client volume to grow local income. This is a prudent approach and
subsequently any rate-card increase possible within the first three years will serve to further increase
revenue and profitability.
o Sponsorship and Promotions (S&P)
With a dedicated Marketing / S&P Manager, considerable attention will be paid to ensuring promotional
output sits well within the overall station theme – making it most effective for both the radio station and
the client. Sponsorship will include regular live broadcasts from venues across the county in addition to
traditional feature sponsorship for the major programme strands such as the on-air guide and travel
news. Combined with events, summarised below, S&P will represent up to 35% of revenue.
o Events & Merchandising
Our revenue research study has demonstrated an excellent marketing and revenue opportunity from
national brands. Each year Cornwall attracts some 5 million visitors, of which 29.1% (1.4m) are young
adults. Our audience marketing and revenue plans dovetail through the creation of high profile events,
available for third party sponsorship. Whilst such events are not necessarily appealing to an
indigenous older population, they represent significant opportunity to key national brands wishing to
target young adults. Our recent NOP study shows that 73% of 15-39 local adults believe that Cornwall
does not have enough live events; 79% would definitely or almost certainly attend a mix of music
events promoted on radio - there is clearly a significant opportunity to develop this market. Further to
this, three in five of these people would bring friends from outside the area, a third of them bringing five
or more people. IMD has noted these brands have been allocating increasing budgets to this kind of
experiential activity, particularly in Cornwall. We have established a partnership with leading local
promoter SW1 Productions which will support this strategy, as we co-promote local gigs and music
events, utilising both local and national youth music artists. This particular commercial opportunity is
seldom available to non-youth stations due to the greater propensity of younger demographics to attend
regular gigs and club nights, as supported by our NOP research.
o Co-operative marketing / brand partnerships
In the five years since IMD proposed the Cornwall station opportunity, numerous national brands have
begun to host or sponsor events in Cornwall which target the 15-34 age group. For example, The Daily
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