iHeartMedia Bets On Programmatic Advertising To Fuel Radio’s Next Chapter.

As iHeartMedia posted its strongest quarterly revenue growth rate in five years during Q1, the company is looking at programmatic advertising as a centerpiece of its strategy to keep the momentum going. Executives say the shift is modernizing how radio is bought and sold will unlock new growth.

CEO Bob Pittman said he sees programmatic ad buying as one of the company’s biggest long-term opportunities, particularly as iHeartMedia works to integrate its broadcast inventory into the same buying systems used for digital campaigns.

“We expect the trajectory of the growth to be somewhat like podcasting,” Pittman said during the company’s first quarter earnings call Monday.

The company’s programmatic revenue is expected to reach roughly $200 million in 2026, up about 50% from the approximately $135 million the company generated in 2025. iHeartMedia has already inked partnership agreements with Amazon DSP, Yahoo DSP, Google DV360 and others that will allow broadcast ads to be packaged with digital.

“This is the way the advertising industry is transacting,” President/COO Rich Bressler said. “We’re just making sure, with all of our assets, starting with the uniqueness of broadcast and digital, that we meet the industry, the agencies, our advertisers, the way they want it.”

Pittman also argued broadcast radio fills a reach gap that purely digital audio platforms cannot match on their own.

“If you try and plan a digital audio campaign, you really have a hard time getting reach without broadcast radio,” he told analysts. “That’s the reason the DSPs are anxious to get us into their buying platform so that these campaigns can deliver the reach that they’re accustomed to getting when they do a video campaign.”

Executives also tied the company’s growing use of AI and automation tools to its broader effort to streamline operations and modernize ad sales infrastructure. As part of that, the company announced a new $50 million cost reduction initiative on top of the previously disclosed $100 million savings program. The company also said that much of its recent marketing spending has been designed to support its broadcast programmatic strategy by driving engagement with the iHeartRadio platform and advertiser targeting tools.

“We continue to view these marketing activities as critical for the success of our broadcast programmatic initiative,” Bressler said.

In the meantime, the Multiplatform Group — which includes iHeartMedia’s radio portfolio — posted 4% growth during Q1 as revenue rose to $493 million. The Digital Audio Group’s results were even stronger, rising 18% year-to-year, led by a 27% increase in podcast revenue. Overall, iHeartMedia revenue increased 9.6% during Q1. It was the company’s strongest quarterly revenue growth rate since the post-pandemic rebound period in 2021.

Pittman cited iHeartMedia’s partnerships with heavy-hitters like Netflix and TikTok as helping, but said a bigger element arches over it all — and it will help to keep that momentum going.

“There are more broadcast radio listeners today than there were 20 years ago,” he said. “And one constant in advertising is that the revenue eventually follows consumer usage.”

Executives acknowledged that growing economic uncertainty began weighing on advertising demand during March, as inflation concerns and geopolitical tensions appeared to make some marketers more cautious. Pittman said March advertising revenue came in “a little lower than anticipated,” which he linked to “advertiser and consumer uncertainty resulting from the impact of current macroeconomic issues.”

Pittman also pointed to iHeartMedia’s internal consumer research, which the company uses to help guide programming and on-air talent. According to the company’s latest tracking, 61% of U.S. consumers say the economy is getting worse, while 31% identified inflation and rising prices as their top concern — the highest level recorded since 2022.

Even so, iHeartMedia reaffirmed its full-year guidance and said it still expects programmatic and political advertising growth to help drive stronger results during the second half. Revenue expected to increase low-single digits during Q2. “I think we’ve got a reasonably healthy ad market, especially considering all the macro factors at work,” Pittman said.