Mediapost offers this update:
| Radio Audience Strong, Revs Shrink |
| by Erik Sass |
 Radio ad revenues may be shrinking, but the audience isn't, according to the latest figures from America Media Services. The AMS Radio Index survey found that 64% of American adults listen to the radio once a day--essentially unchanged from 63% in last year's survey. Moreover, 80% listen to the radio when they are driving--up from 74% last year--and 73% say they are listening at least as much as they were five years ago, if not more. About half (51%) say they don't change stations during commercial breaks. These figures seem to be in accord with Arbitron's measurement of the national radio audience, which has consistently found that radio reaches about 94% of American adults every week. The number of people who listen to Internet radio is also increasing: 33% of respondents said they had already listened to Internet radio, and within this group, 39% (12.9% of the total) said they had done so in the last week--up from 23% six months ago. Again, this seems to agree with separate surveys from Arbitron and Edison Research, which found that the percentage of American adults who listened to radio in the last week rose from 11% in 2007 to 13% in 2008. According to AMS, interest in Internet radio is also growing: six months ago, 38% of the adults surveyed said they expected to listen to radio on the Internet at some point in the future; in the most recent survey, that figure rose to 48%. While this is undoubtedly good news for radio, the findings from AMS and Arbitron contrast starkly with the medium's current financial woes. Radio revenues declined 6% in the second quarter to $5.36 billion, making it the fifth straight quarter to see a year-over-year decline in revenue. Internet radio revenue is growing at a rapid pace, but still contributes only a small part of total radio revenues. According to the Radio Advertising Bureau, "off-air" revenues--which include Internet radio--grew 10% to $501 million in the second quarter of 2008. However, that's just 9% of the total $5.36 billion. And the amount of revenue added by Internet radio in the second quarter ($45 million) is dwarfed by the amount lost overall ($343 million). |
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