The 2023 Radio Landscape
Commercial radio revenue throughout 2022 and into 2023 has continued to grow, hitting an all-time high of £740m at the end of 2022, despite some major investment changes from big players, including major retailers and the UK Government. Alongside this, the way consumers are listening to radio is also changing. Here’s a brief look at what the radio landscape looks like for 2023.
The industry body for radio, Radiocentre released their 2022 figures, showing Sky became radio’s biggest advertiser, increasing their spend by 9.5% to £19.6m. However, UK Government advertising spend took a huge plunge, dropping by 60% from 2021-2022. Many big brands, especially retailers, have been growing their radio spend significantly over the past year, including Lidl (+48.4%), Boots (+47.8%) and DSG (+35.7%).
Matt Payton, CEO of Radiocentre says “Radio’s performance continues to defy all expectations, even in challenging economic times”. Studies by IPA show that currently, campaigns that use radio can grow their market share 4 times faster than those that don’t. Additionally, using radio in your campaign media mix has a significant uplift effect on key brand metrics.
But, how are consumers listening to radio in 2023? New research by The Media Leader suggests the peak of radio listening, previously breakfast (8am-9am), has shifted to what they’re calling a “brunch cluster” (8:30am-10:30am). Media owners are responding accordingly to this change, set to be the new norm, with Bauer Media moving their Kiss Breakfast Show from 6am-10am to 7am-11am. The main reason cited for this change is the switch to working from home. Liz Martin, commercial marketing & insight director at Bauer, told The Media Leader: “Since Covid we can see that there has been an increase in radio listening as a whole, with a general increase in at home listening. With more people working from home, listening patterns have changed and total 8- 8:30am breakfast listening has reduced, whilst listening between 10am and 1pm has increased.”
If you’d like to know more about radio advertising and how we can help you get the best out of it for your business, whether you’re new to radio or a seasoned pro, our team are all ears and ready to help, get in touch at team@mostlymedia.co.uk.