The Radio Advertising Bureau is reporting a 7% gain in radio revenue for the fourth quarter of 2010, enough to bring the entire year home with a 6% gain over 2009. Total revenues made it to almost $4.6B for the quarter and almost $17.3B for the year.
RAB did not break spot revenue into local and national. However, the all-important category stated in combination perfectly mirrored the results for both the quarter and the year at plus 7% and plus 6% respectively.
The return of spending from automotive categories, including dealers, dealer groups and manufacturers, was a key driver for the year. They were the number one category, and increased their radio expenditure by 22% in both Q4 and the year as a whole.
| Revenue | $Q4 2010 | % change | $FY 2010 | % change |
| Spot | 3,747 | 7% | 14,181 | 6% |
| Network | 297 | 3% | 1,102 | 3% |
| Digital | 172 | 29% | 615 | 24% |
| Off-air | 373 | 8% | 1,389 | 3% |
| Total | 4,589 | 7% | 17,287 | 6% |
| * Dollars in millions | ||||
| Source: Radio Advertising Bureau, Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. | ||||
The top five categories for the year were:
* Auto Dealers/Dealer Groups/Manufacturers, $1,808B
* Communications/Cellular, $1,610B
* Restaurants, $1,342B
* Television/Networks/Cable Providers, $1,333B
* Financial Services, $1,333B
Other big gainers included grocery and convenience stores, up 16% to $1.097B, department/discount stores and shopping centers, up 15% to $655M, and professional services, up 19% to $593M.
Political accounted for $105.2M in spending, with 49% of that total coming in the fourth quarter.
RBR-TVBR observation: Getting positive comps isn’t that hard when going up against numbers posted at the bottom of a down cycle. Don’t get us wrong – it beats the living crap out of digging down even deeper. But we’ll believe radio is on the right path if it keeps the comps in the black throughout 2011.
