That’s according to a new report released by the Radio Advertising Bureau and Borrell & Associates. The $700 Million figure is 13.4% higher than 2016. Radio’s overall revenue has been hovering at about $17 Billion per year. The report shows that digital ad revenue now accounts for 7.5% of the average station’s ad revenues, up from 6.3% last year.
Results from the report show that 85% of radio advertisers are also buying some form of digital advertising, and that three-quarters of them are buying digital and radio together.
The findings are a part of the 6th annual RAB-Borrell report, “Benchmarking Local Radio Stations’ Online Revenues.”
The report analyzes online ad revenue from more than 10,000 radio stations, as well as survey responses from more than 1,300 local businesses that buy radio advertising.
Among the findings:
- Over the past two years, the number of stations selling digital services such as SEO, website development, and social media management has doubled.
- Radio advertisers’ top marketing goal is to acquire new business, and they rank Social Media and Radio as the Top 2 methods to achieve those goals.
- Stations’ confidence in their digital strategy is improving.
This is totally misleading. In order to add $700 million to the top line, radio station had to pay $350 millions to digital providers. Let’s cool it wth the digital accolades and get back to what radio does best … RADIO!!