The Australian commercial radio industry reported an improvement in metropolitan advertising revenue to $168.525 million in the December quarter following the re-opening of Victoria and a slight improvement in business conditions.
However, ad revenue for the five capital city markets was still down 10.4% for the quarter compared to $188.049 million a year ago.
This was a marked improvement from the 28.15% year fall in the September quarter, according to figures compiled by Deloitte and released by industry body Commercial Radio Australia.
South Australia was the best performer, reporting ad revenue of $16.121 million for the December quarter, down 2.68%, followed by Western Australian, down 4.39% to $22.337 million.
Victoria, the largest radio market, reported a 15.03% fall to $51.694 million. New South Wales was down 10.9% to $50.896 million and Queensland 8.91% to $27.477 million.
“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,” says CRA chief executive officer Joan Warner.
“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.”
The Deloitte figures report actual revenue received by metropolitan commercial radio stations in the five major capital city markets and include agency and direct ad revenue.
Data from GfK released this week shows that an average of 11.1 million listeners tuned in each week to commercial radio across the five major capital city markets during 2020, 200,000 more than in 2019.
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