«Para onde vão os ouvintes da rádio?»

Um estudo da Bridge Ratings sobre a erosão dos ouvintes da rádio convencional. Conclusões:

«Bridge Ratings reports that audience erosion from terrestrial radio is due to generally less time spent with AM/FM radio and more time spent with a variety of digital media. This includes MP3 players and iPods, Internet radio, satellite radio and CDs. 

1. Terrestrial audience erosion to alternative audio entertainment continues to occur in young demographics.

2. Podcasting is beginning to siphon listening.

3. MP3 device usage can consume as much as 80% of a radio user's audio entertainment during initial ownership weeks and months. This number tends to be generally lower among 30+ women and 35+ men.

4. MP3 player fatigue is slowing overall as the market continues to expand due to consumer interest in these devices. Fatigue with MP3 players remains high among those consumers who have owned the devices longer than 6-8 months.

5. Competition for traditional radio time-spent-listening is more severe. Time spent listening to terrestrial radio is fighting for its share of time with a multitude of digital devices. Even television has regained viewership based on this quarter's data. The most often given reason for this by our sample: better programming and new shows. Meanwhile, music-specific radio stations are vying for the attention of their constituencies as MP3 players continue to be more pervasive than ever (75 million sold). Podcasting is beginning to show evidence of cannibalizing radio's time-spent-listening.

6. Satellite radio also suffers from attrition! For the first time, we are seeing satellite radio consumers who have been subscribers for longer than 6 months are actually spending less time than they were six months ago with their satellite service of choice. According to our panel, during the second quarter of 2005 average time spent listening to satellite radio was 16 hours per week. During this most recent study during the period of January 1 through March 31, 2006, weekly TSL for satellite radio among subscribers of 6 months or longer was down to 12.6 weekly hours»

Sobre o estudo:

«This study, which has been tracking such behavior since January, 2004, once again reveals behaviors assumed to be taking place.
After a recovering Quarter 4 of 2005 for terrestrial radio where positive signs that terrestrial radio was experiencing positive Time Spent Listening and Weekly cume audience tune-in, the first quarter of 2006 showed just the opposite in overall listener behavior.  AM/FM radio listening among 18-34 year olds was significantly off fourth quarter 2005's pace as its increase in weekly quarter hours to "other media" than radio jumped from 50 to 60 quarter hours affecting the trend for both 12-24 and 25-49 year old metrics»

fonte: «Bridge Study: "Where Are My Listeners Going?"», Radio Ink, 7/4/06. O texto original aqui.