Radio Advertising Trends

Ken Rutkowski of KenRadio.com sent an interesting pack of statistics about revenue trends in radio.

Year to date, Local and National revenues are flat-lined, with local radio declining. Note that these comparisons are political (this year) to non-political (last year), so the base decline is worse than the trends show.

As I have been saying, radio trends are spelling the future of TV. Local has a challenge. Those with content have options.

Radio Re-tooling. New Toys Spell the Same for TV?

A Reuters story today headlines: "U.S. broadcasters to spend $250 mln for HD radio". They are doing this to compete against satellite radio and iPods.

Now substitute satellite radio with cable and satellite TV, and iPod with "iPod and Zune", Apple and now Microsoft's personal entertainment gadgets, and you have the same scenario set for TV.

I have been eyeing the new Zune with its glitzy color screen, all set for watching video. The screens are great, the hard drives are getting better .. and the reviewers are all clamouring for better video .. which means it will eventually happen. Imagine, hours of HD video in you pocket... just walk up to you 50" HDTV and plug it in ...

Again, content is king, and those with content have lots of options. But it doesn't spell well for those who don't respond (i.e. local TV). A bold move like this has to be an option to consider.

I'll look at the earnings of the Local and National TV groups later today. Given that this was a political year, it should mask some of the decline .. but it's there.