Five Key Findings From Edison’s ‘Share Of Ear’ For AM/FM Radio Streaming Audiences.

The latest Edison “Share of Ear” study, which surveys Americans’ use of audio time use to measure daily reach and time spent with all forms of audio, has a handful of key findings for AM/FM Radio Streaming audiences, according to the latest blog post from the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group.

Each quarter, the post notes, Nielsen’s “The Record” publishes an AM/FM radio programming format analysis. It draws comparisons between streaming shares and total U.S. shares based on a roll-up of their markets.

Among the five key findings identified by Pierre Bouvard, the Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group.

1. Since 2017, AM/FM radio streaming shares have grown and now beat Pandora and Spotify.

“In 2017, ad-supported Pandora led streaming platforms with a 9 share among persons 18+, followed by AM/FM radio streaming (6%) and ad-supported Spotify (2%),” Bouvard writes. “Today, AM/FM radio is the leading streaming platform with an 8% share, beating both ad-supported Spotify (5%) and ad-supported Pandora (5%).”

2. Most time spent with audio streaming occurs at home.

There’s more time spent streaming at home than you probably imagine — a lot more, in fact. While 65% of all time spent with ad-supported Spotify occurs at home, 74% of AM/FM radio streaming happens at home. “The ‘at-home’ listening aspect of AM/FM radio streaming is exciting, since we often strive to target our campaign audiences while they’re at home,” says Erik White, VP of Performance Digital at Cumulus Media.

3. Adding AM/FM radio streaming to your AM/FM radio campaign generates incremental reach and amplified frequency; One-third of those who stream AM/FM radio only listen to the stream.

According to Edison, among those that listen to AM/FM radio, 6% only listen to the stream and not the over-the-air broadcast, while 10% listen to both. More than four in five (84%) listen only to the over-the-air platform and don’t listen to the stream. Meanwhile, among listeners who stream AM/FM radio, one-third only listen via the stream, while two-thirds also listen over the air and to the stream.

“Adding AM/FM radio streaming to your media plan generates incremental reach, and amplified frequency,” Bouvard writes.

4. Spoken-word programming formats have 2.4X larger shares via the AM/FM radio stream.

The research reveals that among those in the 25-54 listener demographic, spoken-word formats have a substantial streaming share. That’s 2.4 times greater than the overall spoken-word share of 12%.

Within the spoken-word slice of the overall pie, News/Talk format has a 6.7% share of total AM/FM radio listening, while the streaming share for News/Talk is a whopping 15.4%, more than double its total share. Sports, meanwhile, has a 12.5% share of the streaming audience, 2.5X bigger than its overall 5 share.

5. 18-34 AM/FM radio streaming shares for News/Talk and Sports are shockingly large.

Writes Bouvard: “Think Sports and News/Talk are older skewing programming formats? Think again! In the stream, Nielsen’s PPM reports massive 18-34 shares for Sports and News/Talk stations.”

The Sports and News/Talk streaming share is a combined 19.6% share, which is 2.6 times larger than the overall 7.4% spoken work share, according to the research. Bouvard calls streaming the “fountain of youth” for spoken-word AM/FM radio programming, noting that spoken-word programming formats “generate an astonishing twenty share of 18-34 streaming AM/FM radio audiences.”

Nielsen data finds that the 18-34 share for the Sports format (9.9%) is nearly three times its total 3.5 share. The 18-34 streaming share for News/Talk (9.7%) is two and half times bigger than its total 3.9% share.

You can view Bouvard’s summary of the findings HERE.