Clear Channel, the largest radio group owning over a thousand AM/FM stations, reported revenue of $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2009...compared to $1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2008. That’s about a 23% decrease in one year.
According CC Media Holdings CEO, Mark Mays, "Our companies performed well on a relative basis in a difficult economic environment and weakened ad market.”
The weakened ad market can be blamed on the fact that more and more businesses are looking for cheaper ways to advertise - through the Internet. What better way to serve these internet-bound businesses than to give them online ad space?
Many streaming stations come equipped with full-blown players that allow for ad insertion and multiple banner slots that can be sold to businesses looking to advertise online.
More and more stations are now streaming online and are generating extra revenue from selling spots via the internet stream. According to the Infinite Dial 2009 report by Arbitron, approximately 17% of people have listened to online radio in the last week, compared to 13% in 2008. As we can see the population of online radio listeners keeps increasing.
