Almost half (47%) of CHR format P1’s have listened to online radio in the last week according to new data from The Infinite Dial 2013: Navigating Digital Platforms from Arbitron and Edison Research. The new data (the 21st in the series dating back to 1998) released 4/25 was for Arbitron clients and presented in a webinar by Bill Rose, Arbitron SVP/Marketing and Tom Webster, VP/Strategy and Marketing, Edison Research. The report looks at radio format P1s from nine AM/FM Radio formats: AC, CHR, Classic Rock/Classic Hits, Country, News/Talk/Sports, Public Radio, Religious, Rock and Urban.
While P1’s generally represent only a quarter to a third of a given station’s total cume, they often contribute between two-thirds and three-quarters of the total volume of AQH listening, so this group is important to ratings and as the study emphasized, social media interaction with their favorite stations.
Other highlights (see the charts, below for full details):
–67% of Americans 12+ have internet access and WiFi in their homes.
–One in three Americans have listened to online radio in the past week. That’s almost double since 2010. More than four in ten Public Radio, Rock and Urban P1s also listened to Online Radio in the last week.
–One in five Americans have listened to Pandora in the past week. That’s one third of CHR P1’s and 3 in 10 for Public Radio and Urban.
–Half of Americans say their mobile phone is always within arm’s length—CHR, Rock and Urban P1’s lead the pack.
–Almost all of the nine formats studied use YouTube for searching for songs.
–CHR P1s have the highest Online Radio listening levels with 47% having listened in the last week.
–29% of Americans now own a tablet.
–71 million Americans 12+ check their social networks multiple times per day.
–One in three Public Radio P1s have listened to audio podcasts in the past month CHR (75%), Rock (70%) and Urban (67%) P1s are the format P1s most likely to own a smartphone.
–The vast majority of CHR P1s (82%) have a profile on any social network, with nearly half (45%) of these listeners using social media several times per day.
–The average number of friends a Facebook user has is 303. Urban P1s skewed the highest at 612 friends. Obviously if you operate an Urban station, you need to engage with Facebook.
–8% of the population age 12+, an estimated 20 million, has signed up to receive email from the AM or FM radio station they listen to most; 20% of Rock P1s and 18% of Religious P1s have done so.
“This representative and projectable study looks at how various format P1s use digital platforms, revealing that each format has a unique digital profile. Programmers and brand managers should consider these unique differences when formulating their digital strategies,” said Rose.
“92% of the population has not signed up to receive emails from the broadcast radio station they listen to most. If broadcast radio programmers are making decisions based solely on their email databases alone, this will not give them the complete picture of the digital media usage and behaviors of all of their P1s,” added Webster.
Some charts from the webinar:
