The US Radio Advertising Bureau has revealed that radio advertising revenue in May struggled to keep up with the recovery of the media industry, as advertising sales continued to fall during the month.
Both local and national radio had a tough time during May as local advertising sales struggled to post a 1% gain and national declined 1% on May 2003.
When compared to April 2004, which grew by 4%, May has had a considerable slowdown across all national categories, with the most pronounced in two of the largest categories – Automobiles and Telecoms. In contrast, local business is doing slightly better than national, with no categories in May reported as slowing down.
Gary Fries, president and chief executive of RAB said: “The recovery continues to be without big energy but comments from advertisers indicate that there is a lot of optimism for the fall on the planning table.”
June looks like it is set to be a slightly better month with a 2% increase expected and beyond that, July and August look to be falling off again, says Merrill Lynch.
Fries added: “For the shorter term, June is shaping up for enhanced growth, with local continuing to lead ahead of national.”
After a tough few months for national radio advertising in the United States, Merrill Lynch announced this month that it was revising down its US radio industry growth forecast and now expects 2004 to increase by 3.8% and 2005 by 5% (see US Radio Forecasts Lowered Again).
Last month, Merrill Lynch predicted that outdoor advertising would grow faster than radio in the US over the next 5 years (see US Outdoor Advertising Expected To Overtake Radio By 2005).
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