Revised Local Ad Forecast Good for Radio, Even Better For Digital

Local advertisers will spend $11.7B with radio; more if station’s digital act is together

By Paul Marszalek
TheTop22.com

A mid-year assessment of local advertising spending by BIA Advisory Services has prompted the company to revise its 2021 forecast upward.

That’s great news for media, including radio. The revision now forecasts local advertisers will spend $142.4 billion with local media — up nearly $5 billion from the company’s original forecast in November.

Radio is expected to grab $11.7 billion of that pie in 2021, and rise again modestly in 2022 to $12.3 billion. Of that, $904 million in 2021 will come from digital, rising to $1.4 billion in 2022.

Worth noting is the rise in digital spending by local advertisers. Of the $142.4 billion total, $77.7 billion, 54% will be spent on traditional media.

However, by 2023, digital media will overtake traditional media advertising spending at the local level, driven in part by huge jumps in OTT/Video on Demand spending.

Local radio, often dismal at the local level in terms of digital, could grab additional market share by keeping local advertisers excited with targeted offerings on their digital platforms.