Australia’s digital audio market booms: CRA

Australia’s online audio advertising market increased by 21% year on year in 2023 to $265.8 million, according to new figures released by IAB Australia and Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA), with podcast ad expenditure reaching $99.1 million.

The Australian Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER), compiled by PwC, also showed streaming ad revenue was $166.7 million for 2023.

Digital audio accounted for 4.6% of total general display ad spending, up from 4% the year before.

Welcoming the results, CRA CEO Ford Ennals says “We are seeing digital audio revenue grow at an accelerating rate – faster than any other reported media market in Australia – and the last quarter of 2023 was exceptionally strong.”

Expenditure increased to $77.8 million from $68 million the previous quarter, and Q4 2023 was up by 38.4% compared to Q4 2022.

Australians downloaded 90.3 million podcasts in January, according to the latest Australian Podcast Ranker, which was a 33% increase on January 2023.