LOTs happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
Radiocentre revealed how much the industry made from advertising in 2023 this week, and the numbers are growing which is good to see.
- Simple spot advertising revenue was up by a small 1% and hit €127.2 million. That’s a nice chunk of change.
- €29.5 million came from sponsorships and partnerships, which is a jump of a really healthy 9%. Seems brands really want closer relationships with specific content now.
- It was a 33% jump for digital audio revenue, which brought in €7.2 million. It’s a big percentage jump but still a small slice of the overall pie.
- The total amount earned came to €163.9 million which is up 4%. That’s expected to be better than overall growth of 2% in the ad industry, so a good result for radio.
It’s good to see the industry getting a boost like this. Motors, pharmaceuticals, travel and transport as well as business-to-business were the biggest contributors to growth in 2023, but there was a notable drop in government advertising.
In some ways I guess government agencies could spend more to support public service content, but all in all it seems like a good set of numbers.
Projects like the Cash Machine have meant the income for the industry is more diverse now, but we still need that ad revenue.
RTE released their 10 highest earning presenters list this week. It feels a bit less exciting than other years as it’s had all the fun and debate sucked out of it, but here’s who earned what.
- Top of the list was Ryan Tubridy who earned €515,000 in 2022. That was for hosting The Late Late Show and his radio show.
- Joe Duffy earned €351,000 for hosting LiveLine and various TV shows.
- Claire Byrne was paid €320,833 for her radio show as well as a few months of Claire Byrne Live
- €263,500 was paid to Miriam O’Callaghan for PrimeTime as well as her radio work.
- Ray Darcy earned €250,000 in 2022 for his afternoon radio show.
- Brendan o Connor was paid €245,004
- €209,681 was paid to Bryan Dobson who announced his retirement last week.
- €197,643 was paid to Mary Wilson
- €184,501 was paid to sports presenter Darragh Maloney
- George Lee is the last person on the list, earning €179,821
RTE will be releasing these numbers annually going forward, so we might get the 2023 numbers in this years annual report. Time will tell.
Finally this week, three radio stations have renewed their broadcast licences.
Coimisiún na Meán posted on X this week to share that Shannonside FM and NorthernSoundFM had renewed their broadcast contract for another 10 years, with Tipp FM also signing a new 10 year contract earlier in the week.
In some ways these broadcasters don’t get as much attention as those owned by big players like Wireless and Bauer, but it’s good to see broadcast contracts being renewed for these local services.
Best of luck to all those involved. Hopefully we’ll be hearing some exciting radio in the years ahead.
Quick Bits
RTE have started promo for the Radio 1 folk awards
Bauer are running a weekend of Winning across their network
The results of RTE’s consultations with staff and the public were published
And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for more fun from the world of radio.