Brian Wright “Radio Listening Up”

The latest statistics from Nielsen are out and shows positive listening levels for radio. These levels are in both in reach (cume) and time spent listening. Radio stays at the top when it comes to cume with persons 18+ with 234.7 million users. Radio outshined live +DVR/time-shifted TV (223.8 million), Internet on a PC (172.8 million), Web on a Smartphone (163.5 million), DVR/time-shifted TV (142.3 million), video on a PC (129.6 million), DVD/Blu-ray device (107.1 million), game console (62.3 million) and multimedia device (32.5 million). This information not only shows us the power of radio but it also shows us the enormous battle we are in with other media platforms.

Radio came in second in TSL among nine measured media sources. The new data shows average daily radio listening of 1 hour, 49 minutes during the fourth quarter, that’s about 10:43 per week. That makes radio second only to live TV (4:27) among the nine measured media in the report. Radio outperformed Web on a Smartphone (1:12), Internet on a PC (0:55), DVR/time-shifted TV (0:32), and app/Web on a tablet (0:23). Game console, multimedia device and DVD/Blu-ray device each registered time spent of less than 15 minutes per day.

All of this information is both encouraging and worrisome. Though we have weathered some mighty storms we may only be in the eye of the hurricane. Completive forces are working harder than ever to take your listeners away. Meanwhile many in radio continue to focus on eliminating tune-outs and spending very little time creating tune-in events and content. The best way to eliminate tune-outs is, in fact, to create many tune-ins.

Find ways to showcase your listeners and make them feel special. Work hard to create authentic relationships with them. It is this “authenticity” that will attract the flood of Millennials that are moving into your demo. If you don’t align well with them you will eventually lose.