The (Un)Surprise of Radio

AMFM radio with 228 million listeners across the US still has the greatest reach of all individual mediums That is more than No 2ranked LiveDVRtime shifted TV 218 million and No 3ranked smartphone AppWeb 203 million amp160Also radio has the highest reach among Adults 1834 at 92 compared to TV39s 79 and smartphone39s 91Radha Subramanyam President of Insights Research and Data Analytics at iHeartMedia is one of those who are unsurprised by radio39s strength quotWe know radio remains the No 1amp160mass reach medium in Americaquot she notedamp160amp160quotSound is on a growth trajectory while other media are under pressure from fragmentation amp160So we remind our brand and marketing partners to always ask 39What is your Sound Strategy39quotHow Nielsen Compares All Categories of MediaWhen comparing the diverse range of media platforms and offerings Nielsen must align the methodologies and metrics so as to display an quotapples to applesquot view of consumption across TV radio TVconnected devices PCs smartphonesamp160and tablets amp160But it all boils down to three basic concepts that are the same across all categories of media measurement how many which is essentially average weekly reach how often number of days per weekamp160and how long both gross minutes and average minute audienceRadio39s Surprising AdvantagesIn Audience Distribution Radio as a whole amp8211 from AMFM to smartphone tablet and PC audio amp160is perfectly distributed by age Sixteen percent of Adults 1834 and Adults 1849 and 50 used radio whereas TV in all of its forms skews older amp160Twentynine percent of Adults 1834 viewed TV compared to 54 of Adults 50In Weekly Reachamp160 More Americans listen to radio in an average week than any other media 93 amp160more than TV 89 smartphones 83 PCs 50 TVconnected devices 44 and tablets 37 amp160Radio is young with a reach among Adults 1834 92 outpacing all other media including smartphones 91In Diversity Hispanics are the most avid radio listeners with over 14 hours per week of AMFM radioamp160In another perhaps even more surprising advantage Nielsen39s newly released 2016 Q4 Total Audience Report shows a significant increase in Millennials listening to wait for it news radioamp160amp160Granted news radio makes up a smaller portion of their consumption but share among this group has actually grown in the last two years up 24 among this demo vs 2015 News radio39s growth spans all age groups too amp160Nielsen reports that Americans listened to more than 115 billion hours of news across portable people meter PPM markets last year up from 105 billion in 2015Radio39s Future According to NielsenRadio is projected to be resilient young and a platform that embraces digitization and this may be surprising to some people amp160quotDespite all the growth in digital media AMFM radio is actually growing tooquot saidamp160Tony Hereau Vice President of Audience Insights atamp160Nielsen amp160The medium remains youthful amp160quotLooking at the 1834 year olds we see radio leading all media at 92 weekly reachamp160 It was 92 last year as wellamp160 The trend is very consistentquot In the digital world he noted quotAMFM radio is holding up remarkably wellamp160 Streaming audio is growing but it is more of a replacement for your CD collection rather than your favorite radio stationquotamp160quotFor decades TV has always been thought of as a reach medium while radio was considered more of a frequency mediumquot Hereau continued quotOver the last few years people have been realizing that radio is actually a reach medium tooamp160 It is not a new storyamp160 It just became a lot more important when it could be compared against TV and smartphonesquotRadio is as fresh youthful and relevant as ever amp160To many that is no surpriseClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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The (Un)Surprise of Radio

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Charlene Weisler

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The (Un)Surprise of Radio

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