Metro commercial radio ad spend up 5% in 2022, despite December slump
Commercial Radio and Audio (CRA) has reported a five per cent increase in advertising revenue for Australia’s metropolitan commercial radio networks in 2022.
The latest figures, which were compiled for the industry body by media data analytics company Milton Data, show that ad revenue reached $701.4 million in 2022, up from $665.62 million in 2021. The figures include agency and direct ad revenue.
‘Melbourne stations were the biggest beneficiaries of the growth, lead revenue gains with 8.1% growth in the 2022 calendar year. Sydney was up 7.7%, while Perth rose 2.2%, Adelaide 1.8% and Brisbane 0.1%.
CRA chief executive officer, Ford Ennals, said the industry had rebounded well from the impacts of Covid over the past two years, however radio had not yet fully recovered from 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
“Radio has benefited from strength across a broad range of business sectors and the return to cars, with revenue ending the calendar year five percent higher than 2021 and 23% above levels in 2020,” Ennals said.
“We are moving closer to a full recovery and while we have seen some caution among advertisers in December, we believe radio will continue to do well in 2023 due to the success of broadcasters in attracting new listeners and maintaining audiences at a record high across broadcast and streaming. Forward bookings for the March quarter are looking solid.”
CRA’s November figures marked the first drop in ad revenue for metro commercial radio in 20 months, with December results dropping sharply again from the previous month’s 1% year-on-year loss.
For the month of December, ad revenue declined by 6% year-on-year to $52.65 million, and remains 2% below the levels of December 2019.
Melbourne revenue was 7% lower to $17.12 million in December versus the same month a year ago and Sydney was down 5% to $15.29 million. Brisbane was down by 7% to $8.31 million, Adelaide was 2% lower to $4.73 million and Perth declined 6% to $7.21 million.
The last GfK radio ratings of 2022 showed commercial radio stations in the five major metro markets gained 940,000 listeners compared to a year ago, with 82% of Australians aged over 10 tuning in weekly.
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