Radio ad investment suffers as local stations fail to recover from COVID-19

Alex Brownsell

Global radio ad spend appears to have settled at a new, lower post-pandemic norm.

While many channels saw a swift bounce-back from reduced investment in 2023, global radio ad spend appears to have settled at a new, lower post-pandemic norm.

As detailed in WARC Media’s latest Big Picture channel report, $27.3bn is forecast to be spent on radio advertising worldwide in 2023, down 2.4% year-on-year, and a 14.2% shortfall from the $31.8bn invested in 2019. Local radio advertising has been especially hit, with global ad revenue in 2023 set to be 18.8% lower than the peak of $20.4bn ad spend recorded in 2018.

More than three-quarters (77.3%) of all global audio ad...

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