According to new research released by the Radio Advertising Bureau and Borrell Associates, digital revenue is approaching the $1 billion mark. The seventh annual study done by the two organizations says local radio stations generated $804 million in digital ad revenue in 2018 and are forecast to pull in $949 million in 2019. The report also suggests that digital revenue will make up more than 10% of the average station’s ad revenue in 2019.
The report, which analyzes ad revenue from 3,121 stations, showed that the average station earned more than a quarter-million in digital revenue in 2018, up 15% from the previous year. The report also includes survey responses from 1,715 local radio buyers and 132 radio managers.
Here are more details from the report:
- 97% of radio advertisers buy digital advertising with traditional forms of advertising in their marketing campaigns, up from 85% a year ago.
- 25% of the average station’s radio customers buy digital advertising from the station.
- Streaming-video advertising is gaining high interest. Among radio buyers, 27% already buy it and 9% more plan to start.
- Attitudes toward digital strategies have improved. Managers who believe their station’s strategy is good has grown from 49% to 72% over five years.
- 57% of stations report that they include digital products with every sales pitch.
- Depending on market size, the average radio cluster gets between 1.0% to 6.6% of the addressable digital market. Best-practice market clusters get four to five times that.
