Radio’s recovery in full swing, December quarter results reveal
Ad revenue for the commercial radio industry showed significant improvement in the December quarter, down 10.4% to on the previous year to $168.53 million.
The latest figures, compiled by Deloitte and released by Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), showed promise compared with the September quarter where ad revenue for the five capital cities had declined 28.15% year on year.
CRA CEO Joan Warner
CRA chief executive officer Joan Warner said the figures were a clear sign of recovery for radio.
“2020 has been one of the toughest years for all Australian media but this is a sign that commercial radio is on the road to recovery.”
Unsurprisingly, markets that were less affected by lockdowns in the latter part of the year showed stronger ad revenues.
Market-by-market, South Australia was the top performer, with revenues of $16.12 million for the final quarter of 2020, down just 2.68%.
Ad revenue in Western Australia was down 4.39% to $22.34 million, and Queensland was down 8.91%to $27.48 million.
Victoria fared the worst, with radio revenues down 15.03% ($51.7 million) on the year before, while NSW was down 10.9% to $50.9 million.
The figures from Deloitte report revenue received by metro commercial radio stations and include agency and direct ad revenue.
Warner added: “Average weekly audiences have stayed at very strong levels and that, coupled with unique local content and well-known personalities, makes radio an attractive consideration for advertisers as marketing spend returns more broadly in 2021.”
Earlier this week, CRA reported that listening across the five metro markets jumped 2% across 2020, with 11.1 million listeners tuning in each week.
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Zanda Wilson was a reporter and podcast producer at Mumbrella, specialising in radio reporting. He left Mumbrella in September 2021.
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