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Brighter future
for radio, despite it all


New study predicts huge growth for digital formats

Sep 5, 2007

With online ad spending continuing to surge, much of it at the expense of other media, it's no surprise that the web is forecast to surpass radio as an advertising medium this year in the U.S.

It's just the latest barrier ready to be broken.

But while it looks indeed grim for traditional radio, it could well be that radio over the longer term will benefit from the rise of the internet as a complementary medium, profiting from the same technologies behind the web's growth. That's the finding of a new report from eMarketer, the New York-based research firm.

“There seems to be no reason why this market cannot find a new lease on life and benefit from the growth in the online sector,” writes Ben Macklin, senior analyst and author of the report. “Advertisers should not abandon radio in favor of the web but combine the two to take advantage of the unique attributes of each.”

The report forecasts that this year ad spending on the internet will hit $21.7 billion, outstripping the $20.4 billion forecast for radio advertising spending. And by 2011 advertisers will spend nearly twice as much on the internet as on radio, according to the report, at $44.0 billion for the internet compared to $22.6 billion for radio.

What's hurting traditional radio is its declining share of the media pie, in terms of time spent with media. Folks are listening to less radio as they spend more time on the web. As Macklin puts it in his report, “Traditional radio is losing its significance in people’s lives."

Yet radio still has a huge share, with a weekly cumulative audience of 282.8 million in the U.S., according to data from Bridge Ratings, and in fact some 90 percent of Americans still tune in to traditional radio each week.

Further, radio is going through a whole set of changes that promise to widen its appeal, and many of those changes are occurring online. Indeed, Macklin believes that the key drivers in radio's future as an advertising medium will be station web sites and streaming internet audio.

The number of traditional radio listeners is expected to remain relatively stable, at 274 million in 2015, but other areas are expected to grow rapidly.

The audience for internet radio--simulcasts of traditional radio stations online and internet-only stations--is expected to grow from 72.0 million in 2007 to 187.3 million in 2015, according to Bridge Ratings. 

Satellite radio subscriber numbers are forecast to hit 30.0 million in 2015, up from 13.6 million this year, while the number of mobile-phone audio listeners will hit 70.3 million, up from 4.1 million.

Finally, podcasting is expected to grow from 2.9 million to 8.4 million, while high-definition terrestrial radio hits 5.0 million, up from 0.3 million over the same period, according to the Bridge Ratings forecast.

Looking at the overall picture for marketers, Macklin sees many synergies between radio and the internet. “The radio-internet combination is a compelling prospect for both broadcasters and marketers alike,” he writes.

For instance, internet users often use more than one medium at a time, with 39.2 percent of teens regularly listening to the radio while surfing the internet, according to data quoted from BIGresearch. Given that, says the report, advertising on internet radio is a key way to drive listeners to a web site. 

Advertisers can also use radio to snare a listener while in the car and then stay in touch online at the office. 

The eMarketer report quotes data from the Radio Advertising Effectiveness lab that shows that people who heard one internet and one radio ad were nearly five times more likely to remember the advertiser than someone who saw two ads on the internet. 

Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended Aug. 26, Microsoft held the top spot among parent companies, followed by Google, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online for the second straight week. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, Microsoft and AOL Media Network.

LowRate Source was the new No. 1 advertiser with 7.7 million impressions, followed by No. 2 NexTag at 5.7 million, both up from last week. With 32.3 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 MySpace at 6.7 million.

Sessions per person per week were up one over the previous week to 17, with domains visited per person up two to 41. Average PC time per person per week was up 2.87 percent to 17 hours and 51 minutes.

 

Top 25 parent companies
Through Aug. 26

#

Parent

Unique Audience (000)

 Reach %

Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)

1

Microsoft

83,318

62.1

0:43:14

2

Google

82,109

61.2

0:34:32

3

Yahoo!

74,890

55.9

1:08:34

4

Time Warner

68,114

50.8

1:27:26

5

News Corp. Online

43,405

32.4

0:57:03

6

eBay

34,986

26.1

0:49:21

7

InterActiveCorp

28,447

21.2

0:14:11

8

Landmark Communications

23,596

17.6

0:22:03

9

Amazon

22,880

17.1

0:14:34

10

Apple Computer

22,251

16.6

0:30:25

11

Walt Disney Internet Group

20,759

15.5

0:19:11

12

RealNetworks, Inc.

18,942

14.1

0:21:46

13

Wikimedia Foundation

18,667

13.9

0:09:44

14

New York Times Company

18,300

13.7

0:08:14

15

AT&T Inc.

15,661

11.7

0:23:06

16

United Online

13,509

10.1

0:24:23

17

CNET Networks

12,774

9.5

0:07:22

18

Bank of America

12,206

9.1

0:24:43

19

E.W. Scripps Company

11,832

8.8

0:06:35

20

Viacom Digital

11,389

8.5

0:30:10

21

Comcast Corp.

10,971

8.2

0:34:48

22

CBS Corporation

10,790

8.1

0:14:28

23

Verizon Communications

10,178

7.6

0:19:21

24

Gannett

9,673

7.2

0:11:48

25

CraigsList

8,925

6.7

0:41:03

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

Top 25 brands
Through Aug. 26

 

Parent

Unique Audience (000)

Reach %

Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)

1

Google

76,907

57.4

0:25:49

2

Yahoo!

74,284

55.4

1:08:42

3

MSN/Windows Live

61,622

46.0

0:43:42

4

Microsoft

55,825

41.6

0:16:15

5

AOL Media Network

55,553

41.4

1:37:59

6

Fox Interactive Media

38,767

28.9

1:00:26

7

eBay

30,705

22.9

0:50:52

8

YouTube

24,449

18.2

0:27:50

9

Apple

22,251

16.6

0:30:25

10

Weather Channel

21,131

15.8

0:23:52

11

Real Network

18,942

14.1

0:21:46

12

Wikipedia

18,541

13.8

0:09:43

13

Amazon

18,218

13.6

0:14:23

14

Ask Search Network

17,127

12.8

0:15:28

15

CNN Digital Network

13,777

10.3

0:16:19

16

Blogger

13,489

10.1

0:09:42

17

About.com

12,922

9.6

0:03:18

18

Bank of America

11,977

8.9

0:24:40

19

Comcast

9,603

7.2

0:38:28

20

Disney Online

8,939

6.7

0:18:31

21

Craigslist

8,925

6.7

0:41:03

22

ESPN

8,853

6.6

0:20:02

23

AT&T

8,711

6.5

0:18:17

24

Facebook

8,385

6.3

0:31:20

25

Gorilla Nation Media

8,314

6.2

0:07:09

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

Top 25 advertisers 
(excludes house ads)
Through Aug. 26

#

Company

Impressions (000)

1

Low Rate Source

7,728,898

2

NexTag, Inc.

5,754,900

3

Countrywide Financial Corporation

4,013,456

4

AT&T Corp.

3,071,893

5

InterActiveCorp

2,638,624

6

Netflix, Inc.

2,028,706

7

Experian Group Limited

2,014,236

8

Reunion.com L.L.C.

1,576,645

9

State Farm Insurance Company

1,132,843

10

General Motors Corporation

1,099,163

11

Verizon Communications, Inc.

985,551

12

Wachovia Corporation

901,786

13

Apollo Group, Inc.

735,068

14

Monster Worldwide, Inc.

716,848

15

United Online, Inc.

638,190

16

Ford Motor Company

572,826

17

eBay, Inc.

533,965

18

Privacy Matters

510,055

19

StubHub.com

509,306

20

Echostar Communications Corporation

494,182

21

SinglesNet

421,680

22

E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.

396,976

23

Scottrade, Inc.

395,036

24

InPhonic.com

394,142

25

Bank of America Corporation

382,713

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance

Note: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.

 

Top 25 advertising sites
(excludes house ads)
Through Aug. 26

 

Company

Impressions (000)

1

Yahoo!

32,300,551

2

MySpace

6,699,744

3

MSN

2,716,877

4

eBay

1,504,513

5

AOL.com

1,176,927

6

MSNBC

646,992

7

The Weather Channel

604,139

8

FOXNEWS.COM

586,525

9

Comcast.net

585,727

10

IMDb

509,628

11

NetZero

486,984

12

Juno

468,684

13

YouTube

429,794

14

ESPN.com

337,440

15

Classmates

287,012

16

The Weather Underground

277,692

17

iWon

266,787

18

New York Times

246,803

19

EarthLink

232,448

20

Photobucket

218,680

21

Excite

205,063

22

Drudge Report

182,604

23

CBS SportsLine

163,588

24

eBay Motors

160,306

25

FOX Sports on MSN

150,140

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance

Note: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.

 

Average use
Through Aug. 26

 

Current Week

Last Week

% Change

Sessions/Visits per Person

17

16

6.25

Domains Visited per Person

41

39

5.13

PC Time per Person

17:51:41

17:21:45

2.87

Active Digital Media Universe

134,096,518

135,322,178

-0.91

Current Digital Media Universe Estimate

215,298,931

215,287,456

0.01

Source: Nielsen//Net Ratings AdRelevance

 

 



Heidi Dawley is a staff writer for Media Life.




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