FEATURE: Is radio becoming obsolete to national advertisers?
Radio is still a cornerstone of many national media buys in Canada, but let’s be frank – it doesn’t deliver metrics that digital-first marketers are asking for. Broadcast Dialogue gathered a group of heavy hitters from Canada’s biggest agencies to talk about the state of national radio ad sales and the challenges and opportunities for clients and broadcasters alike. Joining our publisher Shawn Smith on this episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast are Canadian Broadcast Sales President Gerry MacKrell; Omnicom Media Group Chief Strategy Officer Shane Cameron; GroupM Chief Investment Officer Lindsey Talbot and Glassroom General Manager Scott Stewart.
Radiocount’s October/Fall 2024 survey shows a slight decrease in radio tuning among those 12+. During the Fall 2024 measurement period (reflecting listening from Sept. 2 – Oct. 27), an average of 17.7 hours per week was spent listening to radio, down 1.7% from Fall 2023. Average Weekly Cume however, increased 2.3% to almost 2.1 million listeners during Fall 2024. Radiocount says cume and radio tuning continues to increase among both the key adult 18-49 and 25-54 demos. Time spent listening by those age groups increased by 1.7% and 1.2% respectively, compared to a year ago, and was up 4.1% and 2.9% respectively when compared to Fall 2022. The most-listened to format during the Fall 2024 survey period were pop stations (AC, Hot AC and CHR), with over 9.4 million hours spent listening weekly. That was followed by Country with 5 million hours tuned weekly.
Signal Hill Insights and Ulster Media have released the 2024 Canadian Podcast Listener survey, indicating monthly podcast listening among Canadian adults, 18+, is up three points year-over-year, following two years of minor increases in 2022 and 2023. Daily listening is up from 7% to 8.8%, the largest increase since the study began in 2017. YouTube has surged as the preferred platform to consume podcasts, moving from 29% to 35% year-over-year. Spotify lost listeners, dropping from a high of 31% in 2023 to 28% this year. Read more here.
Canadaland’s COMMONS is coming to an end after six years and 13 seasons, as the podcast’s producers strike out on their own with a new project dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. The Hatchet, which has launched on Substack, is helmed by COMMONS producers Jordan Cornish and Arshy Mann, who also served as host. The first episode of the weekly podcast and newsletter dives into TD Bank, and by the bank’s own admission, its criminal history of being used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money in the U.S. Like COMMONS – which has tackled issues from the emergency room crisis to hockey, cults, and the prison labour industrial complex – The Hatchet is a documentary-style, investigative deep dive. Read more here.
LISTEN: Arshy Mann joins Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast to talk about going independent, his unvarnished thoughts on the state of Canadian media, and choosing to make a graceful exit from Canadaland.
LISTEN: Fred Jacobs from Jacobs Media is on the Sound Off Podcast, discussing Tech Survey, its AQ Study and what listeners come to radio for. He and Matt Cundill also touch on the lack of women in various radio roles, including on-air, and the need for more female program directors; the disconnect between AI and innovation; and some of the perceptions that “podcasting is taking over” when in fact, most radio P1 listeners are not that interested in the medium. They also discuss the financial struggles of public radio.
