• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 27, 2013

Online advertising revenues for radio broadcasters are growing, but will remain a relatively small part of the industry’s overall revenues for the foreseeable future.

In proportional terms, online ad revenues will edge up from 3.4% of radio’s total ad revenues in 2012 to 3.9% in 2013, and 4.7% by 2017, per the BIA Kelsey forecast.
 
BIA Kelsey sees online ad revenues for platforms associated with broadcast radio stations and groups increasing from $491 million in 2012 to around $600 million in 2013, for an annual growth rate of approximately 22%. Online ad revenues should then grow to $818 million in 2017, for a cumulative annual growth rate of 10.8% over the next five years.
 
Over the same period, BIA Kelsey predicts that “over-the-air” revenues will increase 2.3% from $14.3 billion in 2012 to $14.7 billion in 2013, eventually reaching $16.2 billion in 2017 for a cumulative annual growth rate of about 2.4% over this period. Combining over-the-air and digital revenues, radio’s projected ad revenues of $17 billion in 2017 still won’t match the medium’s peak revenues of $17.9 billion in 2007.
 
The 2012 figures correspond with an earlier report from the Radio Advertising Bureau, which pegged total radio ad revenues at $16.5 billion last year. According to the RAB, however, total “digital” ad revenues came to $767 million in 2012, or 56% more than the BIA Kelsey estimate. The RAB’s figure for digital advertising still only represents about 4.7% of total ad revenues in 2012.

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