AUDIO INDUSTRY ROADMAP

HEARD 2025 – COMMERCIAL RADIO & AUDIO 2025 ROADMAP  

Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) has unveiled its vision for Australia’s radio and audio industry at HEARD 2025, its annual industry showcase. The event brought together 1,000 people from across the industry including clients, agencies network executives, some of Australia’s most iconic voices with special guests from System1 and Analytic Partners.  

The key message – the radio and audio industry is in growth from both an audience and revenue perspective.  

Audience 

Australia’s vast audio ecosystem includes 42 metro and 217 regional commercial radio stations reaching every corner of the country. Each one local, trusted, influential and embedded in their communities like no other media channel. In addition, 222 DAB stations offer curated formats and a growing suite of podcasts deliver unique, on-demand storytelling.  

Traditional broadcast commercial radio has its highest ever audience with 12.3 million metro listeners1 and 4.6 million regional listeners2 – the audio industry’s slice of Boomtown and the thriving opportunity that provides for marketers. Across the country 11 million Australians are listening to podcasts monthly3. 

Revenue 

Despite the challenging trading environment, the CRA Audio Market for 2024 was up 1% year on year – with total national broadcast revenues across regional and metro flat, and digital segments across streaming and podcasting up 30%.  

Digital transformation 

Announced at the showcase CRA Audio ID, a unified digital audio ID, will launch in June with streaming audio. Podcasting will follow along with additional data partnerships. CRA Audio ID has been introduced to simplify the way marketers buy digital audio with inventory from local broadcasters ARN, Nine, Nova and Southern Cross Austereo.  

The unified digital audio ID will enable additional capabilities alongside CRA members’ existing programmatic offerings and is designed to deliver cross network campaign optimisation through improved management of reach and frequency and enhanced targeting capabilities enabling marketers to achieve greater scale and enhanced efficiency in their digital audio strategy.   

Partnering with GfK ensures seamless integration with the Radio 360 audience measurement system and provides the foundation for the industry to leverage new technology capability and sets a course for audio’s future as an effective and easy to buy medium that will deliver more effective outcomes for brands.  

The combination that an all of audio strategy delivers is compelling – reach and scale, the precision of digital, the ability of the medium to deliver against a range of campaign objectives, the effectiveness of the medium in combination with other channels and the gains that can be made through creative execution demonstrate just how well radio delivers …because it makes everything work harder.