Soon we’ll be hearing about total U.S. radio revenue figures for the year of 2006. But we already have a pretty good idea of what the past year was like: flat.
The RAB reported last week that overall radio revenue increased 3 percent in November compared to the same month a year before. For the first 11 months of 2006, revenue was flat. Those figures include both spot and non-spot revenue.
National ad dollars were strong in the month of November compared to a year before, up 16 percent; but local sales fell 1 percent for the month.
Radio’s best-performing segment on a percentage basis for last year is likely to be non-spot revenue, which grew 10 percent in the first 11 months of 2006.