RAIN STUDY: IN CAR LISTENING IS RADIO'S HEALTHIEST LOCATION FMQB Calling it a "surprising contradiction of the conventional wisdom," Kurt Hanson's RAIN has posted an analysis of Arbitron radio ratings data that shows "In Car" usage of terrestrial radio increasing during the period that satellite radio has made significant inroads with the car companies.
Looking at the past six years of national listening habits, Hanson reports that "despite the significant adoption of satellite radio in cars, terrestrial radio's usage (as measured by "Persons Using Radio") has been increasing in cars during that period... at the same time as it has been declining in all other listening locations!"
According to the RAIN analysis, "At Home" listening, which makes up almost two-fifths of all radio listening, declined by 14 percent, while "At Work" listening, one-quarter of all radio listening, has declined about 16 percent.
Hanson notes that "in the listening location that would be most affected by the growth of satellite radio, 'In Car' listening (which, on a national basis, comprises about one-third of all radio listening, although most people assume it's more), radio usage has actually risen by almost 3 percent during the period!"
The RAIN analysis notes that "'At Home' listening began its sharpest decline in the 1999-2000 period, at about the same time that radio was increasing its spot loads and cutting back on its external marketing (billboards, TV advertising, direct mail, etc.), whereas 'At Work' listening showed its biggest decline in 2003, at about the same time that Internet radio was beginning to gain popularity in offices."
Also noted by Hanson is that a decline in "At Home" listening by teens "predates the debut of the iPod and other MP3 players, and there is no indication that the trend has been increasing in recent quarters due to the iPod's success."
Hanson concludes his study by saying radio's "declines are real, but satellite radio's not the reason. In short, it looks as if radio is having real and not insignificant audience declines -- although, it should be noted, I believe that these are much smaller declines than those being suffered by newspapers and by network and local TV -- but they began before satellite radio came along and are not occurring in the listening location ("In Car") that would logically be affected (currently) by satellite radio." |