First-quarter commercial radio revenue hits record £120m

Commercial radio revenue from national advertisers for the first quarter of this year has soared 28.7 per cent above the same period last year, to &£84.4m.

Radio Advertising Bureau figures show all advertising income across commercial radio for the first quarter of the year to the end of March totalled a record &£120m. National revenue accounted for 70.3 per cent of all income.

The first-quarter figures reflect a massive increase in spend from the dot-com sector, up from last year’s &£500,000 to this year’s &£11m.

Procter & Gamble and Honda have entered the top-ten league table of advertisers on commercial radio for the first time for the period January to March. P&G increased its radio spend by 235.5 per cent year on year to &£1.13m, while Honda increased its by 173.5 per cent to &£1.56m.

BT and the Central Office of Information topped the table, spending just under &£4m each in the period.

Commercial radio advertising revenue has increased by 11.3 per cent to &£481m for the year to the end of March 2000.

According to the latest Radio Joint Audience Research figures, commercial radio has a 47.1 per cent audience share, reaching 31.7 million people listening for 15.4 hours a week. The BBC has a 51 per cent share, reaching 31.3 million people listening for 16.9 hours per week.