TORONTO – “National radio has now posted eight consecutive quarters of positive growth. That’s the longest stretch since Q1 of 2002,” said Patrick Grierson, president of Canadian Broadcast Sales. “What’s noteworthy is that this growth has been steady, stable and sustainable with no volatility. We’re projecting Q4 to remain on this positive pace and result in a 9% annual growth.”
National radio sales in the third quarter of fiscal 2008, ended February 29th, grew 8.7% as compared to Q3 2007.
‘Radio’s resilience is a major factor in this stable growth. Normal quarterly churn is approximately 40%. In Q3, only 33% of revenue from last year did not repeat,” said Grierson. “We were able to increase sales from new sources by 41% which compensated for the turnover and yielded the positive growth.”
Q3 saw strong performances in five major categories: Restaurants were up 62.1%; alcoholic beverages 27.3%; financial services and insurance 22.7%; retail 18.6% and automotive 12.2%. The telecommunications category was off 18% for the quarter.
“In retail, grocery stores were up 40%,” said Grierson. “Banks were up almost 300% and insurance companies spend 33.8% more. Beverage alcohol was boosted by a 40% increase in beer spending. In automotive, tires were up 111%. It appears telecommunications took a bit of a breather but we anticipate that sector will heat up in the final quarter.”
Advertising spending against the general “adult” demo was 75.2% of total budgets, which is in the normal range, while the Female demo attracted 15.4%, Males were 9.3%, bouncing back from Q2’s all-time low of 5%.
CBS is a national sales firm, representing in excess of 60% of all private Canadian radio stations. Clients include Corus Entertainment, Rogers Media Broadcasting, Cogeco Diffusion, Golden West Broadcasting, Newcap Radio, Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, Rawlco Radio, Vista Broadcast Group, Harvard Broadcasting, Blackburn Radio, Haliburton Broadcasting, Stirling Communications and RNC Media.
