Report: Stream Revenue Increases 12.8 Percent

Total terrestrial radio advertising climbed 1.5% to $17.44 million in 2015—a slower rate of growth from a 2.6% upswing in 2014. And yes, there was a deceleration in on-air revenues, which inched up 0.73% to $16.1 billion. But terrestrial radio online advertising saw robust, double-digit growth, climbing 12.8% to $1.23 billion. That came on the heels of 12.4% growth in 2014 for broadcast radio streams.

The new radio outlook is part of PwC’s “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2016-2020” released today (June 8).

“This trend of online radio advertising making inroads into the overall traditional radio advertising market is set to continue,” PwC says in the report. The result of ad dollars shifting from over-the-air to broadcast streams will cause U.S. terrestrial broadcast advertising to flatten over the next five years with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.5% to $16.428 billion in 2020. But that modest uptick will be more than offset by a steady rise in terrestrial online radio advertising during the same period at a 9.2% compound annual growth rate to reach $1.8 billion in 2020. Factor in satellite radio subscriptions and advertising and total radio revenue will hit $23.02 billion by 2020, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 1.6%.