Industry News

As anticipated, the radio industry took “a very big hit “in 2020 due to the pandemic and subsequent cutbacks in overall spending activity.

Over-the-air advertising revenues dropped to $9.7 billion, a 23.6 percent decline from $12.8 billion in 2019.

That’s according to the first quarter edition of BIA Advisory Services’ 2021 Investing In Radio Market Report.

To little surprise, BIA also determined that Digital ad revenues at stations demonstrated their continued strength, posting only a slight decline to $939 million in revenue in 2020 versus $1 billion in 2019.

“Local radio stations have been feeling the impact of new competition for the past few years; unfortunately, the pandemic just exacerbated the problem and it will take some time to recover,” said Dr. Mark Fratrik, BIA Advisory Services’ SVP and Chief Economist. “The shining star continues to be radio’s online digital advertising revenues, which will outpace over-the-air growth this year and moving forward. Those broadcasting groups that have invested-in and oriented their companies toward digital will benefit faster from that foresight.”

Fratrik forecasts 2021 total local radio revenues to reach $11.7 billion, with $1 billion coming directly from online revenues; a 9.7% increase over 2020.

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“Mirroring the economic climate in 2020, radio station sales fell to levels that hadn’t
been seen in years,” BIA notes.

Only 534 stations were sold in 2020 for an estimated value of $139 million — a
stark contrast from the 1,080 sold in 2011 for $1.1 billion.

You can’t put lipstick on a pig. And you can’t make business year 2020 look any better for the commercial radio industry in the United States. It simply sucked.

And here’s a new chart that shows the big hurt that COVID-10 put on the industry.

“As anticipated, the radio industry took a very big hit in 2020 due to the pandemic and subsequent cutbacks in overall spending activity,” said BIA Advisory Services in its announcement.

“According to the first quarter edition of BIA Advisory Services’ 2021 Investing In Radio Market Report, over-the-air advertising revenues dropped to $9.7 billion, a 23.6% decline from $12.8 billion in 2019.”

Even hardened radio sales veterans may swallow hard when they hear that the industry’s revenue fell below the $10 billion mark.

BIA said digital ad revenues at stations “demonstrated their continued strength,” declining only slightly to $939 million in 2020 versus $1 billion in 2019.

Still, that’s the first time in memory when the digital portion of our radio industry’s revenue went south in a given year.

SVP and Chief Economist Mark Fratrik said in the announcement, “Local radio stations have been feeling the impact of new competition for the past few years; unfortunately, the pandemic just exacerbated the problem and it will take some time to recover.”

Even though those blue digital columns are still pretty small compared to the green OTA ones, he called online digital advertising radio’s “shining star.”

“Those broadcasting groups that have invested-in and oriented their companies toward digital will benefit faster from that foresight.”

The green lines in that chart start to grow again because Fratrik thinks 2021 total local radio revenue will be $11.7 billion, with about $1 billion from online revenues, a 9.7% increase.

Another measure of the economic lockup: BIA said station sales transactions fell “to levels that hadn’t been seen in years.”

It counted 534 stations sold in 2020 for an estimated value of $139 million, “a stark contrast from the 1,080 sold in 2011 for $1.1 billion.”

The post On-Air Radio Revenue Tanked ~24% in 2020 appeared first on Radio World.

NextGen TV provider Evoca is partnering with a skills-to-jobs marketplace to develop “a critically missing piece of national educational infrastructure for adult learners.”

It will see Evoca work with Unmudl to create “the first locally relevant television channel for adult learners seeking short-term courses and credentials to advance their job prospects and navigate the future of work.”

Unmudl and Evoca will curate and produce multi-platform programming and services to inform learners about training and job opportunities and to connect them with community and technical colleges, employers, and social supports.

This new channel, called Path, enables research and development opportunities for interactive experiences and “seamless handoffs” to educational providers and employers, extending Unmudl’s online marketplace to the new medium.

In partnership with others, the pair will design and test the effort in Phoenix and in the Idaho cities of Boise and Twin Falls.

Initial efforts as part of this collaboration include highlighting stories and voices of learners and their educational and career experiences, changing the narrative around skills and technical education based paths.

“Television has been a missing piece of the picture in reaching adult learners. We can actually do something about that with the reach, efficiency, capacity and interactivity of our platform,” said Evoca President/CEO Todd Achilles. “The current approach leaves many unaware of their options and their potential. We are excited to work with Unmudl and their collaborative network of community colleges and employers.”

Variety reports that Joe Budden has fired his co-hosts Rory Farrell and Jamil “Mal” Clay from the popular Joe Budden Podcast.

In episode 437 of the show, Joe berated his hosts on-air for disrespecting him in some way and fired them.

On Twitter Joe seemed to indicate that he may be ending the show when he responded to a fan by saying, “There are millions of podcasts, ppl will survive.”

So far, the episode has only been officially released to his Patreon subscribers and the episode is titled “You Want It To Be One Way…”

— Podcast Business Journal

The last time ViacomCBS had anything to do with audio, CBS Radio was a part of CBS Corporation, and a reunification of CBS and Viacom hadn’t yet been consummated.

Guess what? ViacomCBS is talking audio. Only, the discussion is fully focused on podcasts.

And, iHeartMedia is involved.

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Of all of the audio media companies to report its quarterly earnings results, one sticks out for its bold decision to dare to compare its Q1 2021 results to that of Q1 2019.

That would be Townsquare Media, where digital ad prowess is now propelling its stock in noteworthy ways.

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The Walt Disney Company has ended its fiscal second quarter of 2021 with 103.6 million Disney+ subscribers.

Uh-oh. Disney+ in early March said it surpassed 100 million subscribers for the first time, and it appears the excitement over the over-the-top platform is slowing down.

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Its shares now bear an aggressive 1-year target price of $4.13. Its publishing arm is performing well, and its non-secular spoken word AM Talk stations could win over listeners to the late Rush Limbaugh.

All seems great for Salem Media Group, yet its stock price is now two months into a decline that has put a firm break on a big Wall Street recovery.

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Telos Alliance has introduced a high-density version of its iPort, calling it a multi-codec gateway that lets broadcasters license up to 64 codecs in one rack unit.

“Worldwide networks use iPort for both distribution and contribution, spanning multiple time zones,” the company explained in its announcement.

“Now, the iPort legacy continues with the more powerful iPort High Density, which transports multiple channels of stereo, mono and dual-mono audio across IP networks, including private WANs, IP-radio links and over good quality public internet connections, perfect for large-scale distribution of audio to single or multiple locations.”

The iPort High Density comes with eight bidirectional stereo codecs, configurable to run in MPEG or Linear PCM mode.

“Broadcasters can license additional codecs up to a maximum of 64, as well as add Enhanced aptX encoding.”

The box connects to existing Livewire networks using one ethernet cable (CAT-6 recommended) for all I/O. It can also pair with Telos Alliance xNodes via an adequately configured ethernet switch for use as a standalone multi-stream codec.

The post Telos Intros a High-Density Version of iPort appeared first on Radio World.

Standard Media Index, known for its global advertising spend and pricing data, has just released key findings from its Q1 2021 “Anglo Market Report.”

It’s a comprehensive look at English-speaking markets, looking primarily at North America, Australia and New Zealand, and the United Kingdom but not Ireland.

In these locales, SMI finds, combined ad spend has lifted 4% above the total recorded in Q1 2020 and 1% above the pre-COVID Q1 2019 period.

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