Two factors are needed to understand the current state of the CRM market for public media: the maximum size of a market matters, and software companies benefit from scale.

Market size refers to the total number of public media stations that need CRM systems, not the number of people these stations serve.

In the U.S., that means approximately 350 television stations and 900 radio stations. Because public media organizations often operate more than one station, the number of potential CRM customers is actually fewer than 1,200.

Put another way, if a vendor were to make an ideal system that meets every CRM need of a public broadcast station, at most it would have 1,200 customers.

But software vendors seek scale. Especially in the modern Software-As-a-Service, cloud- based era, some solutions can be used by thousands of people—or even millions. This
scaling began in the consumer market (Google, Amazon, and Facebook, for example) but software that serves organizations has followed a similar path (Office 365, G Suite, Amazon Web Services, and Intuit, for example).

These two factors—the static market size and vendors’ need for scale—can help explain the changes that have affected the vendor base since the 2013 edition of this publication.

“if a vendor were to make an ideal system that meets every CRM need of a public broadcast station, at most it would have 1,200 customers.”

Some of the systems in that report have since been acquired, while others have stopped actively pursuing customers in the public media space.

While the market size and need for scale make it unlikely that new companies will form for the sole purpose of serving public media sector CRM needs, the four solutions in this report each offer a distinct value proposition to public media stations.

You’ll also find a list of other software systems currently being used by at least one station that might meet your needs, should you wish to look beyond the core list. We’ve grouped them into two categories: “CRM/Donor Management Systems,” which includes those that primarily serve donor management needs; and “Other Systems,” which includes both standard database solutions and data systems most often used in university settings.