Pierre Bouvard, the in-house rationgs and research guru at Westwood One, notes that television and cable audiences may be slipping year-over-year as consumer media options continue to proliferate, but AM-FM radio is “remarkably stable.”
Bouvard compared May 2014 and May 2015 Nielsen numbers to draw his conclusion.
Here are the topline featured adult 18-49 numbers:
-14%: TV total day
-16%: TV primetime
-6%: cable total day
-7%: cable primetime
-1%: radio total day
Bouvard rang another alarm bell for television, noting that according to Media Dynamics, the median age of the big four network primetime audience has gone from 41 in 1990 to 57 in 2014.
Citing another source – Scarborough USA – he noted that since 2005, radio’s media age has moved only slightly, from 43 (when the networks were at 47) to 46 in 2014.
Bouvard said, “While primetime network TV viewers are aging and losing younger viewers to cable and new digital platforms, radio continues to reach the younger, working generation.”
