Digital and podcasts rise, radio goes half-speed
Digital audio ad spending has been nearly tripling in the last five years. The ad spend of digital audio services has also been shooting up, amid an increasingly competitive streaming ecosystem. Spotify is still holding the lion’s share of subscribers, as Apple, Amazon, and Google continue adding on to their own audio services.Podcasts are still the darling of the digital audio family, with around one-third of Americans tuning in. Increasing listenership is accompanied by an ad spending that was projected to reach 3.25 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Spotify has proven to be a major player in the podcasting game, boasting a projected eight-fold increase in ad revenue between 2020 and 2024. Despite Spotify’s solid footing, iHeartMedia remains the undisputed podcast leader, with an ad revenue expected to surpass the half-billion-dollar mark by 2024.
The ad revenue of over-the-air (OTA) radio stations in the U.S. has been decreasing for almost two decades, with the 2023 value being little more than one half of what it was in 2006. This decline has gone hand in hand with the gradual rise of the ad revenue of its online counterpart, more than quadrupling in value in the last decade. Comcast Corp. is the leading radio advertiser, with Pfizer and Progressive hot on its heels.
