Figures released today by Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) show ad revenue across Australia’s five major metropolitan markets is mostly steady for Q3 2023, down just 0.9% from the same period a year ago.

Revenue totalled $165.553 million. Brisbane stations were up 7.3% compared to Q3 last year, Adelaide ad revenue rose 0.9% and Perth was up 3.2%. In Sydney and Melbourne ad revenue was down 3.5% and 4.3% respectively from the year before.

Ford Ennals, CEO of CRA said:

“The figures from Q3 2023 highlight the strength and resilience of radio as both an effective and affordable ad medium. The media market is tough right now, with less Government spending than in previous quarters, and many ad mediums are experiencing significant declines – but despite the challenges, radio advertising remained stable, helped by increases in spending in the Automotive, Travel, and Financial Services categories. This shows that when the going gets tough, advertisers direct their expenditure to the tried-and-tested media where they can get exceptional value and returns.”

The general stability of return on radio advertising follows on from a report putting a value on the advertising industry to the Australian economy as a whole. It was released by the Advertising Council Australia, Australian Association of National Advertisers and Media Federation of Australia and published building on seven-year-old data from Deloitte Access Economics.

That report showed that advertising contributed $53 billion (or 2.1%) of Australia’s GDP in 2022. If you want something by way of a comparison, agriculture contributed just one percent more (3.17%).

The metropolitan advertising revenue numbers for Q3 exclude digital audio revenue from radio streaming and podcasts, with the digital audio market continuing to grow growth. The figures were compiled by media data analytics company Milton Data.