YouTube’s Revenue? It’s bigger than U.S. Radio

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On Monday, Feb. 3, YouTube and Google parent Alphabet disclosed for the first time specific revenue figures for the world’s most popular on-demand video hub.


For fiscal 2019, the revenue for YouTube advertising was in the billions.

It was a bit more than what U.S. radio broadcasters have likely attracted during the same period.

According to Alphabet, YouTube ads accounted for $15.15 billion in revenue in fiscal 2019, up from $11.16 billion for the previous year.

Uh-oh. If BIA Advisory Network’s July 2019 projections for the year came true, radio’s overall revenue will have increased by $300,000, to $14.5 billion for the year.

That puts YouTube ahead of the entire radio industry, from a revenue standpoint.

Adding salt to the wound is data that show the slight increase for radio is coming from additional digital revenue, while over-the-air revenue continues to slip.

As RBR+TVBR reported Wednesday (2/5), Radio’s digital ad revenue blasted through the billion-dollar plateau for the first time, now accounting for 10% of total advertising revenue for the industry.

Then, there is Statista’s review of radio advertising revenue in the U.S. from 2012 to 2021.

This is a slightly better look at radio dollars than what BIA projects, and shows $18.49 billion in total ad revenue for all of U.S. radio in 2019, rising by $200 million in 2020.

Still, the YouTube results are worth noting for several reasons. First, in Q4 2019 alone YouTube ad revenue was $4.72 billion. This compares to $3.61 billion in Q4 2018.