Finland: commercial radio revenue up by 31.5%

By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 17 December 2015, 10.56am est

New figures from TNS Gallup for media advertising spend in Finland show that commercial radio grew by 31.5% in November.

While total media spend continued to contract in Finland - down in November by 2.6% - radio bucked the trend. Overall, radio's shown 0.9% growth across 2015 so far; TV and press are significantly down.

Radio now has a share of 6.3% of all advertising in Finland. (In the UK, it's 5.5%; the US has 9.9%; and in Australia it's 8.0%.)

"Of course this is a positive surprise, but no coincidence. Our radio stations have found ways to solve advertisers' challenges in difficult economic times. The industry develops new products and new formats that produces new innovations. This is not the result of a sudden kick of luck, but a determined long term effort from the whole industry", says Stefan Möller, CEO of RadioMedia.

Möller adds a note of caution, though, highlighting the current short-term nature of media buying, and structural changes in the radio business. Bauer Media's recent purchase of SBS Discovery and also Radio Nova are evidence of this change.