Rich Fiscus
20 Apr 2009 14:49
Arbitron has released the results of their annual digital radio survey. It features market analysis of AM/FM based streams, online, satellite, and HD radio, and even Podcasting. They found 17% of respondents said they listened to internet radio during the previous week, nearly a third more than last year's 13%.
According to Arbitron, availability of different music and a measure of control over what they hear are the primary reasons for nearly 40% of consumers to choose online radio.
And how are those listeners finding their favorite online radio service? Nearly a third of listeners say they first heard about it on traditional over the air radio broadcast.
Those traditional broadcasters can at least feel secure in their dominance of in-car listening. Fewer than a third of respondents indicated any real interest in using a mobile (in-car) internet connection to listen to internet radio.
But it's easy to see how that could changes as more advanced phones become more common and more consumers are exposed to mobile internet.
Also according to Arbitron, 71% of 12-17 year olds own a portable music player, which is 2% less than last year, but stil 7% more than the percentage of 18-24 year olds who own them. From that age upward the ownership rate continues to decline.
By comparison, online radio listenership skews older, with 23% of potential listeners between 45 and 54 tuning in. That percentage is cut in half (12%) for 12-17 year olds and 11% for those between 18 and 24..
In fact, 32% of 12-24 year olds listen to the radio less in favor of listening to their portable music player. Although the majority of the public still doesn't own a portable media player, eventually it might be necessary to either find a new way to attract listeners or get a bigger percentage of a shrinking audience.
It will be interesting to see whether MP3 players represent a permanent loss of listenership for radio of all kinds.