Sprint To Get Piece Of The Pie For Radio FM Chips

More details are coming out about the FM chip deal Emmis announced with Sprint at the recent International CES.

That’s because Emmis, acting as point for what broadcasters hope will become an industry consortium, is busy rounding up commitments from radio groups, according to Leslie Stimson at Radio World.

Sprint had agreed to embed and activate analog FM tuners in some 30 million of its cellphones over three years in exchange for a reported 30% slice of the business from “interactive” advertising or activity based on Emmis’ NextRadio tuner app.

Smulyan

Now, Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan confirms the deal calls for Sprint to produce “a minimum” of those 30 million phones; in exchange for $15 million worth of station ad inventory from broadcasters over each of the next three years; that works out to about $10,000 worth of ad inventory per station.

Sprint would also receive 30% of each piece of “interactive” advertising business under the agreement; the details are still taking shape.

Smulyan tells Radio World the $15 million would be paid in quarterly increments, including agreements on how many FM-enabled phones will be shipped each quarter.

Emmis has begun reaching out to broadcasters in order to garner support. Smulyan says the feedback from both large and small radio groups so far has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

Read More Now.