Commercial Radio and Audio (CRA) have released their annual and quarterly ad revenue figures with both down a small amount for broadcast radio but significantly up for digital audio and podcasts.
Annual broadcast radio ad revenue was down 4% in 2023, from $673.252 million, compared to $701.402 million in 2022, across the five major metropolitan markets. This, however, is a 1.1% rise from 2021.
Ford Ennals, CEO of CRA, said:
‘‘Overall commercial radio ad revenue remains broadly stable despite a challenging market, with sustained strong broadcast radio revenue and record levels of growth in digital audio revenue in 2023. Ad spending in the travel and automotive sectors is encouraging and we are positive about radio’s performance for the year ahead.
Radio remains the medium where agencies can get value for money when budgets are tight. We expect to see investment to continue at similar levels this year, as agencies and their clients recognise radio’s capacity to deliver,”
Metropolitan radio broadcast advertising revenue results don’t include digital audio streaming and podcast revenue, which were up 27% in 2023. It was also up 31% for the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to the same period last year. By comparison broadcast radio ad revenue ad revenue fell 6% in Q4 across the five metro markets.
The quarterly and yearly broadcast radio ad revenue figures were compiled by media data analytics company Milton Data.