The US radio industry had a slow April, with national radio advertising expenditure falling by 2% and local radio adspend being flat compared to the same period in 2004.
According to estimates by the Radio Advertising Bureau, April was the worst month in terms of national radio advert demand so far this year, reflecting the sluggishness being reported in the US national advertising economy by other markets.
Figures releases last week by competitive ad tracker, TNS Media Intelligence, showed overall advertising expenditure in the US riseing by just 4.4% during the first quarter of 2005, showing the smallest increase since 2003 (see Travel Websites Attract 23% More European Women In February 2005).
TNS revealed that local radio was up by only 2.2% in the first three months of 2005, while network radio was down by 3.2%. National spot radio was reported to be roughly even with the overall growth of the advertising economy.
However, a report published last month by marketing and communications group, NPD, claimed that radio in the US is still the most popular format for listening to music, with a listener base of 194 million, despite a decline of 4% between March 2005 and 2004 (see Radio Preferred Format For US Listeners).
The research showed 77.2 million people aged 13 of over listened to music stored on their computer, while 53.5 million listened to online radio and 46.1 million listened to free streaming music online.
Gary Fries, RAB president and chief executive officer, acknowledged in a statement released on Friday: “Radio is in an evolutionary phase,” but he implied the medium is poised for growth in advertising demand, stemming from new technologies and programming formats.
The radio industry is embracing a variety of new formats, with the medium becoming available via the internet, digitally, satellite and the consumer generated “podcasts”.
A report published at the end of last year by Borrell Associates predicts total US advertising attributed to online radio websites to rise by 56% each year, reaching $320 million by 2009 (see Internet Radio Advertising To Increase Tenfold by 2009).
Satellite radio is also forecast to enjoy strong growth, with Forrester Research predicting the technology to reach more than 20.1 million US households by 2012, up from 4.5 million at the end of 2004 (see Satellite Radio To Reach Over 20.1 Million US Households By 2010).
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