New Nielsen reports find radio

among most-used media

Nielsen’s recent State of the Media report finds that radio reaches 93% of Americans
every week, more than any other form of media. Among 18-49 year olds, radio
reached over 125 million listeners in March, up almost 750,000 from 2016. The report
also cites that each week, over 95% of listeners turn to a network radio affiliate.
News/talk radio (11% of total listening) is second to comedy for most popular formats
of the year. The most popular audio streaming device is the smartphone, which saw a
growth of 23 million listeners from January to December.

The report touches on podcasts, finding that the audience tends to be young (28% of
listeners are 25-34 years old), affluent (listeners are 45% more likely to have a
household income over $250,000), and educated (68% more likely to have a post-
graduate degree and 60% more likely to have a “professional” career).

Podcast Listeners: % More Likely

Nielsen’s Total Audience Report breaks down the media audience by generations and
platforms. The smartphone has the highest ownership across all generations among
the technology platforms they looked at, with a high of 97% ownership for Generation
Z and Millennials. The report finds that Baby Boomers spend the most time daily
listening to AM/FM radio (unchanged from 2016), with 2 hours and 3 minutes.
Generation Z spends the least, with 1 hour and 8 minutes.

Nielsen reports that AM/FM radio reaches the second most people (age 2+) out of all
the platforms they looked at, with 266,218,000 users (Live+DVR/Time-shifted TV
reached 26 million more people). The platform that people spent the most time on
each month was also the Live+DVR/Time-shifted TV, followed by App/Web on
Smartphone, and then AM/FM Radio (54 hours and 28 minutes). To see further
breakdowns, including by race, see the full report.

View a web dashboard with the latest trends in audience reach,

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