Nielsen Study Finds 77% of Adults Listen to Radio

RADIO ONLINE | , , | :am CT

A Nielsen study of media use, conducted by the Council for Research Excellence (CRE), found that 77% of adults are reached by broadcast radio on a daily basis, second only to television at 95%. The study, in which consumers were physically observed consuming media throughout the day, found that Web/Internet (excluding e-mail) reached 64%, newspaper 35% and magazines 27%.

In a deeper analysis of audio media, titled "How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio," Nielsen found that that 90% of consumers listen to some form of audio media per day. The 77% who listen to broadcast radio surpass the 37% who listen to CDs and tapes and the 12% who listen to portable audio devices. Broadcast radio also continues to play a major role to all ages, with almost 80% of those ages 18-34 listening to broadcast radio in an average day.

"There are a lot of critics out there who want to write off broadcast radio, but this analysis of real-time media consumption shows that it continues to play a very strong role," said VP/Methodological Research Dr. Michael Link.

While the recent emergence of portable audio devices like the iPod and other MP3 players was considered a threat to traditional forms of audio, this study's evidence suggests that the new technology has had a positive effect on radio consumption. In fact, radio was found to have a higher reach (82%) among those who listen to portable audio devices, compared to the average reach for all audio consumers.