Sydney radio station 2DayFM has opted to ditch advertising during working hours in a new initiative to play more ad-free music.
Coming into effect yesterday, ads were dropped between the hours of 9am-3pm and the format is expected to continue today.
A spokesperson for SCA confirmed to AdNews that the commercial-free initiative is in play but remains a day-to-day operation, with no long-term strategy in place.
"It's not something that has been set out, when we can play more music we will. We are just providing listeners with more music by playing commercial-free music breaks at times throughout the day," the spokesperson says.
At this time, the decision has only been introduced on the 2DayFM station. 2DayFM declined to comment if it will be rolled out across the remainder of the network.
The decision follows the news that SCA, which operates the Triple M and Hit networks, saw metro radio revenue for the group fall by 3% to $121.4 million in the first half.
This was in part due to the poor performance of 2DayFM breakfast and declines at the Triple M Network.
Most recently the station expanded the 2DayFm breakfast line-up to feature a new show, hosted by Ed Kavalee, Em Rusciano & Grant Denyer, as well as broadening the 2DayFM music format.
In the early 2000s, Nova also explored unique ad formats, introducing a two-ad rule, which saw the network play "never more than two ads in a row."
It was scrapped after nine years with Nova acknowledging that limiting ads was not a sustainable ad model.
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