What's the Longest Contract Term You'll Sell?

    • 994 posts
    March 13, 2017 2:21 PM PDT

    Recently one of our station friends told us about an advertiser that asked his station to sign him to a five-year deal. His response was, "Let's take it one year at a time."

    This made me wonder, in view of our industry's practice of going after "annuals," is anyone offering longer term contracts?

    At our stations we carry high school and college sports broadcasts. Our practice has been to offer sponsorship contracts for one season, two seasons, or up to five consecutive seasons, with the monthly rate dropping a bit in exchange for longer commitments. We've found that the vast majority of sponsors opt for the longest-term contracts we offer. 

    What's the practice at your station? Do you offer multi-year advertising contracts?

    • 118 posts
    March 16, 2017 11:20 PM PDT

    I would be signing on the bottom line without question. If the station changed format or whatever, the station could offer the ability to cancel the contract should that happen. They might be at a pretty low rate in 5 years but I could make that up through other clients. A 5 year deal is quite the compliment.