PALO ALTO, Calif. & INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., June 28, 2012 – TuneIn, a free service that lets people listen to music, sports, news and comedy from around the world, and Emmis Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: EMMS), one of the nation’s most respected diversified communications companies, today announced that Emmis has selected TuneIn to broaden the reach of its 20 stations to the service’s more than 30 million monthly active listeners.
Emmis Communications Corporation owns and operates radio stations in the nation’s largest markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Austin, St. Louis and its hometown of Indianapolis. TuneIn listeners can enjoy popular Emmis stations like Hot 97/NY and Power 106/LA – two of the most influential hip hop stations in the world – via 150 different platforms including smartphone and tablet apps, connected vehicle dashboards, Internet home entertainment systems and online at www.tunein.com.
“Emmis is excited by today’s announcement. We want to follow our listeners and deliver our content to the platforms they choose to use,” said Jeff Smulyan, Chairman and CEO of Emmis Communications. “The TuneIn platform will provide our listeners from coast to coast another connection point with their favorite radio brands.”
Signs of the alliance were evident earlier this month when Emmis made the entire HOT 97 Summer Jam festival available for free listening through the TuneIn service. Emmis similarly offered themed stations celebrating the music of HOT 97 Summer Jam and the POWER 106 Powerhouse festival exclusively to TuneIn listeners. TuneIn and Emmis-owned KGSR/Austin worked closely together in March as KSGR streamed numerous live performances from SXSW to the TuneIn audience.
“One of our key focal points is to connect the highest quality broadcasters with the millions of passionate listeners who look to TuneIn to hear their favorite content and discover great new stations and artists,” added John Donham, CEO, TuneIn. “Emmis has such a compelling stable of influential radio stations, and as an organization they really understand the value of great programming and strong brand-building. We are very excited to align with them.”
As part of this strategic agreement, Emmis gains use of a variety of TuneIn tools pioneered by the company and unmatched in the industry such as free analytics and an ad platform via TuneIn Amplifier. Furthermore, Emmis stations will promote TuneIn to their listeners on-air. TuneIn Radio and TuneIn Radio Pro are the only audio streaming apps that have a 4.5 or 5 star rating on every mobile platform, worldwide.
About TuneIn
TuneIn is a free service that lets people listen to live local and global music, sports, talk and news from wherever they are. TuneIn offers more than 70,000 AM, FM, HD and Internet radio stations and more than two million on-demand programs streaming from every continent. The company’s mobile apps are ranked in the top five in the App Store’s Music category across 82 countries and territories. The company raised venture funding from Sequoia Capital in late 2010 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.
About Emmis
Emmis Communications Corporation is a diversified media company, principally focused on radio broadcasting. Emmis operates the 8th largest publicly traded radio portfolio in the United States based on total listeners. Emmis owns 18 FM and two AM radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Austin (Emmis has a 50.1% controlling interest in Emmis’ radio stations located there), Indianapolis and Terre Haute, IN.
Emmis’ news releases and other information are available on the company’s website at www.emmis.com.
Media Contacts:
Emmis Communications – Kate Snedeker, kate@emmis.com
Allison +Partners for Tunein – tunein@allisonpr.com (415.277.4929)
Tunein – Ryan Polivka, press@tunein.com (510.290.7809)