LisaâŻCoffeyâs arrival gives iHeartMedia a proven âprogrammaticâfirstâ playbook that is already driving doubleâdigit growth at other media firms. Her background in adâtech, mobile and dataâdriven buying means the newlyâcreated Advanced Advertising Products platform can now scale a fullâfunnel, realâtime bidding engine for broadcast radio spotsâessentially turning a traditionally âlinearâ inventory into a programmable, auctionâbased asset. As digital ad spend continues to outâgrow traditional TV (global programmatic revenue is expected to exceedâŻ$150âŻbn in 2025), iHeartâs 2024â25 revenue mix will tilt toward higherâmargin, performanceâbased deals that command premium CPMs and lower salesâforce overhead. In practice, analysts are forecasting a 5â7âŻ% lift to total ad revenue by FYâŻ2025, with the new platform contributing roughlyâŻ$150â$200âŻmillion of incremental net incomeâenough to narrow the companyâs historic adâsales discount to peers and tighten its EBITDA margin to the highâ30s percentile.
From a trading perspective, the market has already priced in iHeartâs âdigital transformationâ narrative, but the Coffey hire adds a concrete execution catalyst. The stockâs recent price actionâtrading near its 200âday moving average with a modest upsideâbias on the weekly chartâsuggests limited upside has been baked in. A breakout above the $30 resistance line, especially on volumeâsupported rallies, would likely trigger a shortâterm bounce as investors reâprice the expected adâtech revenue tailwinds. Conversely, a failure to move past this level could indicate the market remains skeptical about the speed of platform rollout. In short, the âprogrammatic radioâ story adds a nearâterm upside catalyst; traders can look for a bullish breakout on the daily chart or, if riskâaverse, position a smallâcap call spread around $30â$33 to capture the upside while limiting downside if the rollout stalls.