3Q DR Radio Media Billings Crash 37 Percent
Top- 10 spending decrease mirrors total, but network radio spending suffers a 57-percent nosedive.
Third-quarter 2009 DR radio media billings results, provided by Kantar Media (formerly TNS Media Intelligence), show a precipitous slide of 37 percent from same-quarter totals one year ago, losing more
than $4.5 million. Just one quarter ago, DR radio media
billings fell below $10 million in a quarter for the first time
in the six years Response has been analyzing Kantar Media’s
data — but the 3Q 2009 total of just more than $7.7 million
guarantees that 2009 will be the worst year on record for DR
radio media billings.
This quarter’s results are off by nearly 63 percent from
Kantar’s first 3Q report provided to Response in 2004 — down
from $20,783,700 in that year’s third quarter. Network radio,
once the stalwart of these billings, continued to freefall, with
the category losing 57 percent of its billings from a year ago.
Spending on the top 10 campaigns mirrored overall losses,
while the total number of unique individual campaigns for
the medium stabilized, dropping from 61 in 3Q 2008 to 59
this quarter.
A Categorical Disaster
Just two of the 17 vertical categories reported advances in
3Q 2009, the least for any quarter on record. And those advances were extremely minimal compared to some shocking
losses — the “General” category gained $163,500, while “
Apparel” gained $8,700.
The losers were led by the “Household, Furniture and Appliances” category, which dropped more than $2.8 million
(a 55-percent loss). The “Drug and Toiletry” ( 29 percent)
and “Audio Supplies and Equipment” ( 42 percent) categories
each dropped more than a half-million dollars from 3Q 2008
results. Five other categories lost more than half of their 3Q
2008 totals. The “Multiple Category Ad” space, always one of
the biggest categories, suffered just less than a 10-percent decline — qualifying as good news in this abominable quarter.
Both the “Automotive” and “Collectibles and Art” categories reported a zero once again, mirroring both 3Q 2008 and
2Q 2009 results.
Local Control
All three DR radio media outlets reported losses in the
third quarter, with network and national spot radio both suffering precipitous declines. Network radio’s 57-percent loss
(nearly $3.9 million) was truly staggering, as the category lost
more than 17 percentage points of market share to fall from
its leadership perch. National spot radio, meanwhile, lost
three-quarters of its 3Q 2008 total, and more than half of its
already miniscule market share.
Once again, local radio helped pick up the pieces by suffering comparably minimal losses. The category’s 11-percent
decline of just more than $500,000 helped it gain 18 points
> > Fig. 1
Percentage Breakdown
Among DR Radio Outlets
Local Radio
61.3%
$4,723,700
Total: $7,706,900
Network Radio
38.3%
$2,952,400
National Spot Radio
0.4%
$30,800
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