A recorded run of 12 stations: see what we found
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Every advert we heard, and every one we did not.

See every radio advert you paid for, and build the case to get back the ones that never played.

Spotledger listens to each station's official online stream, day and night. When your advert plays, you see the station, the time and how long it played. When we listened and did not hear it, you get a list to show the station when you ask for a free replacement.

Get startedSee a real report

Free for 30 days. No card and no approval needed.

Brands shown here are not Spotledger customers. These adverts were recorded from public broadcasts.

Test plan written by Spotledger to show plan versus actual. No one booked these spots.

  • Aired as booked
  • Aired outside the time band
  • Cut short
  • Wrong version
  • Not detected in a fully monitored window
  • Inconclusive: partial coverage
  • Not monitored
  • 0112 stations
  • 02Lagos
  • 03Abuja
  • 04English and Pidgin
  • 05Every minute logged
  • 06Evidence kept for every airing

Inspect one airing

Check an airing without playing station audio.

One real airing from our run: the advert's own shape, the radio around it with the matched seconds marked, and the facts a report prints.

The airing

Apple, 29.1 s

iPhone 18 Pro

No check needed: the score is high enough
The advert as supplied, 29.1 s
The radio at Cool FM, 10 seconds before and after
Station
Cool FM Lagos 96.9 FM
Source
Official online stream (the audio on the station's website; the FM broadcast can differ)
Day and time (Lagos)
Day 1, 21:02
Length played
Played in full, 29.1 s
Score
0.99
Found by
Both fingerprints agree
Review
No check needed: the score is high enough
Open the proof of airing report (PDF)

Line 2: Cool FM Lagos, Day 1, booked 21:00 to 22:00, aired 21:02:42 Lagos time, 29.1 of 29.1 s, Aired as booked

Report fingerprint 13fc510e7f45

Can I listen? You can always play the adverts you upload. Station recordings play for Spotledger staff only until each station gives written permission. Until then every airing shows its time, source, score and the seconds that played, and the report lists them. One airing is shown in full, with its waveform and the matched seconds, on the home page.

Apple is not a Spotledger customer. This advert was recorded from a public broadcast.

The problem

Spots are booked and paid for. Proving they aired is the hard part.

As low as 35%

In 2016 a Nigerian monitoring firm said ad compliance could be as low as 35% at some stations, and that over 90% of advertisers did not monitor their airings. The evidence is old and the speaker sells monitoring, so read it as context, not as today's rate.

Source: BusinessDay, 2016

Booked and paid

The money leaves first.

Radio is bought by the band and the second, and the invoice arrives whether or not the spot ran.

Cannot prove it aired

After that, all you have is the station's word.

A spot that never ran looks the same on paper as one that did, unless somebody recorded the radio.

Month end

Every invoice is a manual check.

Each station sends its own invoice and log. Checking them one by one against the plan is slow, so it is easy to skip.

Few buyers check

Hardly anyone looks.

The same 2016 report said over 90% of advertisers did not monitor their airings.

Gauge: compliance as low as 35% at some stations. Source: BusinessDay, 2016

₦605.2 billion

was spent on marketing communications in Nigeria in 2023, and is projected to reach ₦893 billion by 2028.

PwC report for ARCON, reported by Arise News, 2024

740 stations

were operational in Nigeria, radio and TV together, with 67 more approved. That is a lot of airtime to check by hand.

NBC, reported by Techeconomy, 2023

The workspace

This is what you open every morning.

The Spotledger workspace, filled from our own recordings. Click through the tabs, then open the demo to try every screen.

Demo workspace

Spotledger demo workspace

Latest detections in the demo workspace
TimeStationBrandVersionPlayedFound byConfidenceStatus
Day 2, 10:14Wazobia FM LagosOfficial online streamFanta29s EnglishPlayed in full, 28.8 sBoth fingerprints agree0.99Detected
Day 2, 09:35Wazobia FM AbujaOfficial online streamNescafé31s EnglishPlayed in full, 30.9 sBoth fingerprints agree0.99Detected
Day 2, 09:31Nigeria Info LagosOfficial online streamFanta29s EnglishPlayed in full, 28.7 sBoth fingerprints agree0.99Detected
Day 2, 09:29Bond FM LagosOfficial online streamNescafé31s EnglishPlayed in full, 31.1 sBoth fingerprints agree0.99Detected
Day 2, 09:19Cool FM AbujaOfficial online streamNescafé31s EnglishPlayed in full, 30.9 sBoth fingerprints agree0.99Detected
Day 2, 09:13Wazobia FM LagosOfficial online streamFanta29s EnglishPlayed in full, 28.6 sBoth fingerprints agree0.99Detected
Day 2, 08:19Cool FM LagosOfficial online streamNescafé31s EnglishPlayed in full, 30.9 sBoth fingerprints agree0.99Detected
Day 2, 08:15Wazobia FM AbujaOfficial online streamNescafé31s English20.5 s of 30.9 sBoth fingerprints agree0.98Detected

Built from our own recordings. The brands shown are not Spotledger customers.

Open the demo workspace

One real airing

One airing, with the evidence behind it.

The station, the time, the length played, which fingerprint found it and the confidence score. Each number was measured in our own run.

The airing

Apple, 29.1 s

Detected
Station
Cool FM Lagos 96.9 FM
Source
Official online stream
Time (Lagos)
Day 1, 21:02
Length played
29.1 s
Found by
Both fingerprints agree
Confidence score
0.99

29.1 s played of a 29.1 s advert

Apple is not a Spotledger customer. This advert was recorded from a public broadcast.

The evidence behind it

  1. Log every minute

    Software

    54 of 60 minutes monitored in that hour

    • Monitored: 54
    • Stream down: 6

  2. Match the advert

    Trained model

    Classic fingerprint, 1,400 agreeing landmarks; neural fingerprint, 16 agreeing windows. Match score 0.99. Stored as: Both fingerprints agree.

    • Agreeing landmarks (classic fingerprint): 1,400
    • Agreeing windows (neural fingerprint): 16
    • Match score: 0.99
    • Found by: Both fingerprints agree

  3. Time the airing

    Rules

    Day 1, 21:02 for 29.1 s of a 29.1 s advert

    • Played: 29.1 s
    • Full length: 29.1 s

  4. Check the version

    Rules

    29s English, played in full

    • Other versions considered: 0

  5. Name the brand

    Spotledger AI

    Apple, retail

    • Plays found across stations: 5
    • Stations: 4

Numbers are from this one airing, measured in our own run.

See all nine steps

What each feature is

Every feature says who does what.

Every feature carries one label: Software, Trained model, Signal processing, Spotledger AI, Rules or A person. Code checks every answer against fixed rules, and a person confirms anything new or unsure.

• 01 Listen •

Record everything, and be honest about the minutes we missed.

  • Always On Listening

    Software
    The software does
    Records each official stream in one-minute pieces and marks every minute monitored, silent or down.
    Code checks
    Gaps, restarts, bitrate and minute by minute coverage.
    A person confirms
    Outage alerts reach a person, who decides what to do.

  • Airtime Sorter

    Rules
    The rules do
    Sorts each stretch of radio into music, talk, ad, jingle or news, using fixed rules on features computed from the audio itself.
    Code checks
    Segment length rules, so a three second blip is not called an ad.
    A person confirms
    A wrong label fixed in review is saved as a training label.

• 02 Match •

Find your adverts and say exactly what aired.

  • Spot Match

    Trained model
    The model does
    Hears your uploaded advert inside live radio, even under a presenter's voice. The neural fingerprint is a model we train ourselves, and the classic fingerprint beside it is signal processing. Every airing shows which one found it.
    Code checks
    The match must line up in time from the start of the advert to the end.
    A person confirms
    Matches with a confidence score under 0.80, and neural-only finds under 0.94, go to a reviewer.

  • Version Check

    Rules
    The rules do
    Tells which cut aired: the 30, 45 or 60 second version, or a version with the same opening and a different ending.
    Code checks
    Played length against the full length of each version.
    A person confirms
    Two cuts that fit what played almost equally well go to a reviewer; the other cuts are kept as alternatives.

  • Cut Short Flag

    Rules
    The rules do
    Notices spots that stopped early, even when the start was perfect.
    Code checks
    Played length under 90% of the full length.
    A person confirms
    Disputes are reviewed by a person.

• 03 Prove •

Turn airings into statuses, reports and read checks.

  • Live Read Check

    Spotledger AI
    Spotledger AI does
    Finds presenter reads of your script and checks each key message: brand, offer, price, promo code and call to action.
    Code checks
    Prices, numbers and codes must match exactly after numbers are normalised.
    A person confirms
    Borderline reads go to a reviewer.

  • Plan Reader

    Spotledger AI
    Spotledger AI does
    Reads your agency's own plan spreadsheet and maps its columns to ours.
    Code checks
    Every row is validated. Errors are listed by row.
    A person confirms
    You confirm the column mapping before anything is saved.

  • Plan Check

    Rules
    The rules do
    Matches every booked spot to what aired and gives each one a status.
    Code checks
    Fixed rules. A band is marked inconclusive only when the longest stretch we did not hear is at least as long as the advert.
    A person confirms
    Disputes are reviewed by a person.

  • Morning Brief

    Spotledger AI
    Spotledger AI does
    Writes a short summary at 8am Lagos time: what aired, what was missed, what rivals launched.
    Code checks
    Every number in the brief must come from your report, or the brief falls back to a plain template.
    A person confirms
    Nobody needs to approve it. It only restates your own report.

• 04 Watch •

See adverts nobody told us about, including your rivals'.

  • Ad Finder

    Signal processing
    Signal processing does
    Finds adverts nobody uploaded by noticing audio that repeats across hours and stations.
    Code checks
    Song and jingle rules, and a minimum of three plays.
    A person confirms
    Every new brand is confirmed by a person.

  • Brand Reader

    Spotledger AI
    Spotledger AI does
    Listens to each found ad and names the brand, product, category and offer.
    Code checks
    The brand must actually be said in the ad, or confidence is capped.
    A person confirms
    New brands are confirmed before they are used.
See how Spotledger AI works on one real airing

A real run

We recorded 12 official streams. Here is what Spotledger found.

12 official streams, 13.4 hours. Nobody uploaded a single advert: we found them by noticing audio that repeats, dropped songs and jingles by rule, and Spotledger AI read each one to name the brand.

110station hours monitored
61adverts found that nobody uploaded
21brands named
1,261airings of those adverts
6presenter live reads found
22repeated songs dropped
41station jingles dropped

Brands shown here are not Spotledger customers. These adverts were recorded from public broadcasts.

Read the case studySee a real report
  • Lagos · 6 stations · 72.0% of minutes monitored
  • Abuja · 6 stations · 65.9% of minutes monitored

Measured accuracy

How well it finds an advert, measured.

Counts from a controlled test, with how it was built in plain words. We say which numbers are from a test and which are not.

Each fingerprint has two bars: the share of controlled cases it detected, then the share of its finds that were right. A full bar means every case.

Neural fingerprint

Found more
Detected
85 of 85
controlled cases detected
False matches
0
in 3 hours of other radio

Classic fingerprint

Detected
77 of 85
controlled cases detected
False matches
0
in 3 hours of other radio

How this test was built. Ten real adverts that Spotledger found in its own recordings were cut out clean and inserted 85 times into three hours of other stations' real audio, some changed the way radio changes them. We know exactly where each one is, so every miss and every false alarm is counted. This is a controlled test: we placed every advert ourselves, so the right answer for each case is known. The other radio comes from stations the neural fingerprint trained on, so this is not a score on stations it has not heard.

See the results by condition

What Lagos and Abuja radio played,recorded from 12 official streams

the ad rack

FoundNamedCounted

61 adverts21 brands1261 airings

Scroll to walk in

  • American Mechanics: 577 plays on 1 station, 7 seconds
  • Unnamed advert: 78 plays on 8 stations, 29 seconds
  • MTN: 76 plays on 8 stations, 30 seconds
  • Unnamed advert: 44 plays on 2 stations, 8 seconds
  • Unnamed advert: 26 plays on 2 stations, 9 seconds
  • Unnamed advert: 25 plays on 3 stations, 16 seconds
  • Legend Extra Stout: 21 plays on 3 stations, 30 seconds
  • Unnamed advert: 21 plays on 1 station, 15 seconds
  • Milo: 20 plays on 7 stations, 5 seconds
  • Unnamed advert: 19 plays on 1 station, 63 seconds
  • Unnamed advert: 18 plays on 2 stations, 39 seconds
  • Unnamed advert: 17 plays on 3 stations, 27 seconds

Brands shown here are not Spotledger customers. These adverts were recorded from public broadcasts.

Coverage

12 stations in Lagos and Abuja.

Spotledger records each station's official online stream. Station names are shown as plain text, because we do not use anyone's logo without written permission.

Lagos

  • Bond FM92.9 FM54.0%
  • Cool FM96.9 FM83.7%
  • Metro FM97.7 FM43.0%
  • Nigeria Info99.3 FM84.0%
  • Rhythm FM93.7 FM83.6%
  • Wazobia FM95.1 FM83.5%

Abuja

  • Citizen FM93.7 FM54.9%
  • Cool FM96.9 FM82.7%
  • Kapital FM92.9 FM58.1%
  • Kiss FM99.9 FM33.1%
  • Nigeria Info95.1 FM83.5%
  • Wazobia FM99.5 FM83.3%

The bar is the share of minutes we were listening during our recorded run, the same figure as in the case study.

Pricing

Priced in naira, free for the first 30 days.

Dollars are a small guide at ₦1,410 to the dollar. The naira amount is the price.

Brand

₦350,000a month

about $248 a month

For one brand that wants proof.

  • 1 brand
  • Up to 12 stations in 2 cities
  • Proof of airing reports
  • Make goods lists
  • Alerts and a Morning Brief in the workspace
Start 30 day free trial

Agency

₦1,200,000a month

about $851 a month

For agencies that buy for many clients.

  • Up to 10 client brands
  • A make goods list per station, to check against each invoice
  • Exports for clients and finance
  • Everything in Brand
Start 30 day free trial
Full pricing, add ons and billing questions

Trust

Your plans and results stay yours.

Recordings of public radio, your adverts and your reports are handled under Nigerian data law, with a short retention and a person behind every dispute.

Raw audioKept 7 days
ClipsKept about 13 months

  • Your data stays yours

    One client's adverts, plans and results are never visible to another. Every query is limited to your own organisation.

  • Kept only as long as it is useful

    Raw audio is kept for 7 days, then deleted. Clips around detections are kept for about 13 months, so reports stay checkable.

  • Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023

    We process personal data under the Act. Data processing terms are provided on request, and the draft is on the legal pages.

  • Every status can be disputed

    A person reviews each dispute and the outcome is recorded. We say Not detected in a fully monitored window, never that a station did not air a spot.

How we keep data safePrivacy notice

Questions

What people ask first.

Something not here? Use the demo form and a person answers.

How does Spotledger know my advert aired?

Your advert is turned into two audio fingerprints, a classic one and a neural one. Both look for it in the recorded radio, and a match counts only when it lines up in time from start to finish. You get the time, the station, the length played, which fingerprint found it and a confidence score.

Do you record the station's FM signal?

No. We record each station's official online stream. What listeners heard on FM can differ, because a stream can carry different adverts. Every report prints the source it was recorded from. We also show a coverage record and leave minutes we could not hear out of the score.

What if the stream was down?

Those minutes are labelled not monitored. They are shown in the report and left out of the compliance rate. If the gap was long enough to hide your advert, the spot is marked Inconclusive: partial coverage instead of missed, so a station is never marked down for something we could not hear.

Do you say a station did not air my spot?

No. A spot we could not find is reported as Not detected in a fully monitored window, next to the minutes we were listening. Every line can be disputed, and a person reviews disputes.

How accurate is it?

We test it before we claim it. Real adverts cut from our own recordings are placed at known spots inside other radio, and we count what is found. The results are on this page and in the case study. Confidence is a score from how closely the airing matches the advert in the fingerprints that found it. A person checks any score under 0.80, and any find by the neural fingerprint alone under 0.94.

Which stations and cities do you cover?

12 stations across Lagos and Abuja, listed with their frequencies on this page.

Do I have to upload my adverts?

To get proof for your own campaign, yes: upload each version and your media plan. To see what rivals are running, no: Spotledger finds adverts nobody uploaded by noticing audio that repeats.

Can it check live reads?

Yes, in Nigerian English. Upload the script and the key messages, and Spotledger checks each one: brand, offer, price, promo code and call to action.

How is my data kept private?

One client's adverts, plans and results are never visible to another client. Raw audio is kept for 7 days and short clips around detections for about 13 months. Read the security page for the details.

Do the stations know?

Spotledger records only each station's official online stream, and every report prints that source. Reports name the station, show the minutes we were listening and can be disputed line by line.

How much does it cost?

Every plan starts with a free 30 day trial. After that the Brand plan is ₦350,000 a month and the Agency plan is ₦1,200,000 a month. See the pricing page for what each includes.

See what really aired on your campaigns.

Free for 30 days. No card and no approval needed.

Get startedBook a demo