SCA pulls out of radio revenue reveal: dollars now just twice a year

Southern Cross Austereo is believed to have pulled out of releasing its monthly revenue to Deloitte. Deloitte compiles monthly share figures for members of Commercial Radio Australia, which tracks how the sector is performing. It is believed radio sales revenue updates will now be available twice a year.

CRA also uses the data to update the market on total commercial radio metro sales figures every month.

Mediaweek was unable to confirm the news with either CRA or SCA this morning.

CRA last released monthly data on July 7 when it revealed ad revenue had been flat for the past financial year.

Advertising revenue for the 12 months ending June for the five metropolitan markets was slightly down 0.21% to a total of $773.849 million, compared to FY16. It is the first contraction in growth since 2012.

Individual markets for the financial year were: Sydney up 0.81% to $240.334 million, Melbourne up 0.27% to $238.201 million and Brisbane up 0.02% to $121.501 million. Adelaide was down 4.38% to $68.224 million and Perth down 1.02% to $105.588 million.

If a broadcaster withholds monthly sales data from Deloitte it could mean the end of monthly sales updates from CRA and it prevents other broadcasters from getting a sense of where the money has gone.