How Townsquare Is Cashing In On The Streaming TV Ad Surge.

Townsquare Media may be known for radio and its growing digital business, but its fastest-growing segment isn’t on the airwaves — it’s on TV screens. The company’s Townsquare Ignite platform is fueling much of its digital growth by helping small businesses reach digital audiences. It’s a striking twist for a company rooted in AM/FM broadcasting — radio profits are increasingly being driven by digital ads running on television.

Ignite is Townsquare’s proprietary advertising technology platform that helps local businesses —and increasingly, other media companies — run targeted, data-driven ad campaigns. At last week’s Noble Capital Markets conference, CEO Bill Wilson said Ignite’s programmatic and streaming ad business has been the company’s top growth driver for five years, benefiting from the migration of ad dollars to streaming video.

“Streaming TV is exploding while cord-cutting on the traditional side is only going to continue,” Wilson told investors. Ignite also extends to ads on mobile, social media, paid search, and the open web.

Wilson said Ignite’s growth has also been fueled by broader adoption of its “white-label” partnerships with companies including SummitMedia, Renda Media, and Steel City Media, among others. Those agreements allow Townsquare to handle digital ad operations — including creative production, audience insights, and campaign reporting — for other radio and local media companies. That includes handling sales training, creative, inventory, targeting, and monthly client calls.

The program has grown rapidly since its 2024 debut, producing what Townsquare projects will be $6 million in revenue this year for the company. Wilson expects that business will expand nearly tenfold to $50 million annually within five years as more broadcasters sign on.

Ignite and sister division Townsquare Interactive, a subscription-based digital marketing platform for small businesses, now account for 54% of total revenue and profit. But Wall Street still values the company like a struggling broadcaster. CFO Stuart Rosenstein told investors that despite digital’s growth, Townsquare’s stock “is tethered to radio-sector multiples” rather than those of marketing services companies. When their digital business accounts for 60% to 70%, Rosenstein expects it will be different. “People will start disassociating us with just traditional broadcast radio businesses,” he predicted.

Even as Townsquare’s digital businesses continue to expand, its radio stations in 74 small and mid-sized markets remain the company’s foundation — a steady, if slower-growing, “cash cow” that anchors its local dominance. Wilson described broadcast radio as both resilient and essential, especially in the smaller markets where Townsquare operates.

“It’s the number one reach medium in the U.S. today,” Wilson said. “We’re reaching 93% of Americans on a weekly basis just by listening to AM/FM radio.” He noted that even amid competition from streaming platforms, more people listen to AM/FM radio today than 30 years ago. “Many of our markets don’t have a local television station,” he told investors. “If people in these communities want to get informed as well as entertained, we are their primary source of that.”

Still, Wilson acknowledged that the broader radio industry remains under pressure. He said the overall ad market remains “muted” due to tariffs, high interest rates, and political uncertainty. But Wilson expects that performance to improve as the economy stabilizes and the 2026 election cycle brings new advertising demand. And as the company leans into programmatic and streaming revenue, Wilson said its AM/FM stations continue to deliver the audiences that make Townsquare’s digital ad business possible.

“We love radio,” he said. “We’d never have the success we have in digital without that DNA.”