Absolute Radio and Planet Rock sign ad sales deal

Absolute Radio has signed a deal to sell Planet Rock’s airtime and online advertising from 1 April, alongside its own network of stations.

Planet Rock – which will be sold alongside Absolute Radio, Absolute Classic Rock and Absolute Xtreme – will be establishing its own sponsorship and promotions team.

Donnach O’Driscoll, CEO of Absolute Radio, said: “Absolute Radio has digital at its core and shares Planet Rock’s belief in DAB – this is a win-win partnership with extremely compelling benefits to media-buyers.”

Malcolm Bluemel, owner of Planet Rock, said: “Absolute Radio sales is a great home for Planet Rock, there are fantastic synergies between our (male) targeted national brands with such strong music heritages. It will be a powerful sell to agencies.

“The team at Golden Square have a great reputation for innovative cross media sales and we are all looking forward to them bringing those skills to Planet Rock.”

Absolute Radio was acquired by Times of India in June 2008 and re-launched last September (see Virgin Radio To Become Absolute).

The latest RAJAR figures, for Q4 2008, show that Planet Rock had a weekly reach of 680,000 listeners, up 20.8% year on year (see BBC Radio 2 remains top national station).