CHANTILLY, VA.: BIA Advisory Services has declared that broadcasters are showing signs of progress in developing TV station Web site revenue. A scour of public documents and some phone calls led the BIA folks to estimate that TV and radio stations took in $805 million online last year, or around 7.3 percent of the $11 billion in local online ad spending.
Of the $805 million, TV took $463 million and $342 million went to radio. BIA projects the broadcasting industry's online revenue will climb to as much as $1.9 billion by 2013 "if the industry continues its transformation to multiplatform solutions."
"We see a compounded annual growth rate of 18.6 percent for online broadcasting advertising over the 2008-2013 period," said Mark R. Fratrik, Ph.D., vice president of BIA Advisory Services. "Given the challenges facing broadcasting, it's even more important for broadcasters to continue to step-up their mobile and Internet offerings."
BIA last week said TV industry revenues would fall below the $20 billion mark this year for the first time since 2003. Revenues are expected to top out at $17 billion, a 21 percent drop from the $21.5 billion recorded in 2007. Fratrik noted in the release of that analysis that broadcasters would have to pick up online and other alternative sources to recover. The industry was buffered somewhat in 2008 from the windfall associated with campaign advertising. Total 2008 revenues came in at $20.1 billion, down 6.6 percent from 2007.
The folks at BIA said they expected 2010 to be slightly better, with a tiny uptick of 0.6 percent on the strength of congressional races and an anticipated economic recovery. By 2012, BIA says mobile broadcasting alone could generate as much as $1.1 billion for local TV stations. -- Deborah D. McAdams
