Radio sees itself foremost as a local medium; so the latest projections about local media advertising will be of interest to your station’s sales manager today.
Consulting and research firm BIA/Kelsey believes U.S. local media ad revenues will grow at a compound annual rate of 2.3 percent through 2017, reaching $148.8 billion. However, it also believes that traditional local media’s share of that will decrease from $109.4 billion in 2012 to $107.6 billion in 2017.
“As anticipated, traditional media revenues experienced a bump in 2012 from political advertising,” the company stated. “The political ad spend cycle contributes to a drop in revenues in odd-numbered years. Despite the year-over-year political advertising seesaw effect, traditional media revenues remain remarkably steady throughout the forecast period.”
It said national brands accounted for about 32% of the $132.5 billion spent on local media advertising last year, and national’s share of local business likely will grow to $51 billion by 2017. The company’s Mark Fratrik said the use of local media by regional and national businesses is reflected through market shifts in “mobile, social, search, promotions, coupons and deals, native ads and sales transformation.”
And the company believes that digital media will continue to grow as a percentage of total local media revenues, from about 17% to 27%.
BIA/Kelsey defines local media as those that provide local audiences to all types of advertisers.
