[cma-l] Community Radio Spot Rate

[David Duffy]

Your point about agencies is spot on and universal across broadcasting.

Congrats on keeping your bad debtors down to £20 over 12 years. That could be a record!

You are lucky to still work on 'tick'. However what kills business more than debtors not paying is the cash flow implications of incurring the costs of running the station today and then getting paid 30 to 45 days later. (I know commercial radio stations that have debtor-days of 120) It also stifles the ability to grow and build a financially resilient enterprise. 

David




On 4 Feb 2015, at 15:56, Two Lochs Radio <tlr at gairloch.co.uk> wrote:

Nice idea, but apart from where we offer a discounted rate for payment up-front I doubt many of our clients would be impressed. In this area everyone still operates in the days of 'tick' and trust, and will often not submit a bill for months. We have been burnt only once in 12 years, and that was only for £20.
 
The up-front doscount has, I believe, been key to securing a number of year-long sponsorship deals, and as someone wrote earlier, sponsorship deals are usually a lot less admin and hassle than advertising spots.
 
Have you tried applying PIA to advertising agencies? The bigger, the slower to pay we've found. Most have a policy of not accepting invoices until a campaign has run, and then only paying at the end of the following month - and sometimes even then only if their client in turn has paid them.
 
Alex
 
----- Original Message -----
From: David Duffy
To: The Community Media Association Discussion List
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 3:23 PM
Subject: [cma-l] Community Radio Spot Rate

Nick et al,
 
I would recommend that everyone should operate a 'payment in advance’ (PIA) policy these days. PIA for comprod and PIA for the airtime, monthly in advance.  If you use voice artists or external compared I would also recommend that you ask them what their tariff would be if you paid them in advance. I can’t believe the number of VO artist that spend hours each week on the phone chasing payment after a session. It would help them and should help you get a better price from them.
 
As for taking someone to the Small Claims court - for what it’s worth, Nick, walk away.  Apart from the financial cost of taking someone to court (which admittedly is low) there is an emotional cost.  It drags you down and takes you away from all the good stuff you are doing. Sure, it sends out a message that ‘we are not to be messed with’ but that not always the strong arm image that a community organisation want to portrait.
 
David
The Radio People
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