Cathy O’Connor gave a report on the state of the commercial radio industry, saying the the share of advertising has “not eroded to the extent of other media.” O’Connor says the industry should be proud of its “robust performance.”
“Radio is still the biggest driver of new music in the country. When you go to a concert and everyone knows the words to a song, they have learnt those words from commercial radio.
“But we are now dealing with a very complex marketplace, so we need to demonstrate our effectiveness in a multi media and cross platform world.”
Advertisers want commercial radio to “talk about the audiences we deliver” not just numbers, according to O’Connor. With this in mind, CRA has an increased focus on the marketing strategy for the industry’s marketing push and will spend more money on brand campaign next year.
Other important industry issues in the coming year are the new ratings tender “to ensure that we are continuously upgrading.” The new tender result will be released in early 2013.
After celebrating the 3rd year anniversary of DAB+ recently, the industry is now starting discussions about rolling out digital to regional centres. The federal government is now considering CRA’s proposals about funding.
O’Connor predicts that radio will outperform other media in the coming year.