Total Audience Report Finds Total Media Use Remains Steady

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Nielsen

Overall total media use among U.S. adults remains unchanged year-over-year at 10-and-a-half hours per day according to Nielsen's Total Audience report for the third quarter. But there are shifts in were that time being spent is dedicated to, as we see increases in Internet connected devices and app/web smartphone usage that are gradually replacing time spent on other sources. Nearly seven out of ten homes now have a device capable of streaming content, and a similar amount have access to a streaming SVOD service.

Highlights from the Q3 2018 summary include:

• 92% of U.S. adults listen to radio each week
• U.S. Adults spend 10 hours and 30 minutes per day connected to media, the same amount as one year ago
• Recommendations are a main influence on video and audio streaming
• Adults 50-64 spend more time per day on media than any other age group
• Adults 18-34 spend over one-third of their daily media usage on smartphones
• Black adults spend nearly 13 hours per day across all media
• Internet Connected Device/Smart TV app usage experienced the largest year-over-year growth in Q3 2018
• vMVPDS exist in 3.7% of all TV households as of September 2018
• Enabled smart TV ownership had the largest year-over-year growth for all races and ethnicities

As streaming continues to grow in popularity, the library of audio content available at any time is growing at an exponential rate. At times the act of simply choosing what to listen to from a seemingly never-ending list can turn into a time consuming process. What factors are most influential for users as they explore content and decide what to listen to through their streaming services? According to the Q3 2018 Nielsen MediaTech Trender, a quarterly consumer tracking survey concentrating on emerging technology devices and services, people more often than not still refer back to traditional measures in this new world. Two-thirds of audio users (67%) are influenced by recommendations from family and friends. 56% of audio streaming users refer back to existing programming they used to listen to on broadcast media and are revisiting now that the content is more accessible.S

The audio market is expanding as a result of increased accessibility and emerging technology. Radio is at the center of that universe, as it reaches more Americans each week (92%) than any other media platform. Radio reach is even higher among Hispanic adults, at 97%. Internet connected devices experienced the greatest year-over-year increase, rising from 30% to 37% in Q3 2018. Smartphones are now used more than ever to stream audio content, while podcasts (19%) and satellite radio (16%) continue to gain prominence.

Across all platforms, the largest year-over-year declines came from Internet on a computer usage, which dropped to 53% from 58%, but app/web on a smartphone reach grew from 76% to 80% while app/web on a tablet increased to 46% from 41%.