TORONTO – A “challenging” fourth quarter contributed to a shortfall of -12.7 % in national radio sales for the 2009 broadcast year, says Canadian Broadcast Sales (CBS).
Q4 was down -25.2% year-over-year, with weakness in the financial services sector (-61%), the alcohol beverages category (-47.8 %) and automotive (-40.5%).
“Radio hasn’t experienced a decrease in revenue since the months immediately after September 11th, 2001, and even that downturn was less than half of Q4’s minus 25.2%,” said CBS president Patrick Grierson, in the press release. “Last September and October represented the peak of a six year run of year-over-year increases. November held its own and then the economic roof fell in during December.”
For the 2009 broadcast year, retail spending was within 3% of the previous year, but its share of overall spend increased by over two points to 19.7%. Telecommunications accounted for 8.7%, and the financial services sector was 8.6%.
In 2009 spending by province, Ontario absorbed 50.7 % of the national drop in revenue but still led the way with a 34.1% share despite its year-to-year performance decreasing by 17.9%. British Columbia was down 18.8% in revenue with a share of 18.9%, and while Alberta’s revenues decreased by 12%, its share of total spend increased slightly to 20.03%. Quebec was up 8.1% for the year to reach a 6.1% share, and Nova Scotia increased revenue by 3% to a share of 5.5%.
Grierson said that he has seen “signs of improvement” for the first quarter of the 2010 broadcast year, and predicted that this year will exceed 2009.
“Over the past year, we saw some softening of rates as clients demanded discounts to help them deal with the impact of the recession”, he added. “Demand for radio has increased and avails have tightened in some markets. As a result, rates have firmed up somewhat.”
CBS represents over 60% of all private Canadian radio national revenues. Its 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.
