TORONTO – Radio ad time sales is shooting upwards, reports Canadian Broadcast Sales.
National radio sales climbed 9.5% in the first quarter of fiscal 2008, ended November 30th (the broadcast year is from September 1 to August 31, of course) and are on track to post strong annual growth of 8.7%, said CBS in a release this morning.
“We’re showing strength across the board with resultant pressure on inventory which leads to minimum unit rates,” said Patrick Grierson, president of CBS. “Saskatchewan was up 45%, Manitoba 36%, Alberta 9% while Atlantic Canada was 8% ahead of last year. Ontario was up 18.9% with Toronto plus 14.3%. We were almost 50% ahead of our Q1 pacing of only 90 days ago.”
Grierson also figures the U.S. TV writers strike, which shows no sign of ending soon, may have a positive impact on radio. “Because of the growing recognition of radio’s strength as a reach medium, we believe that radio’s future growth will come from television as audiences become more fragmented,” he explained.
In category spending, the top five categories accounted for 56.8% of total dollars. Retail led the way with 17.9%, telecommunications 11.7%, financial services and insurance 9.3% and government 7.7% (Ontario election). National automotive was down to 10.2% from 15.6%.
“Automotive declined despite a stronger performance by General Motors. Q1 saw a shift of spending to local dealers by other manufacturers,” said Grierson in the release. “Other categories like telecommunications stepped up to fill the automotive void.”
In select markets, including Calgary and Edmonton, local unit rates are now consistently higher than national rates as local revenue growth has been pacing over three times faster than national so far this year.
“This situation is being driven by strong local growth putting pressure on inventories,” said Grierson. “National buys are driven by ratings while local buys are driven by results. The best way for advertisers to deal with this demand is to commit their budgets as early as possible. It would also be wise to plan for increased costs in Alberta as is now the norm for that province’s economy.”
Q1 spending by demographic remained stable with adults 25-54, females and males 25-54 accounting for 60% of all dollars expended. Adults 18-49 accounted for 8.64% of spending.
