While marketers are facing challenges from consumers who actively avoid ads, radio scored favorably for the number of commercials it plays as well as in ad avoidance.
According to the Nielsen 2023 Consumer Survey Report, 64% of consumers intentionally take actions to avoid ads on free, ad-supported video services, and 59% are somewhat or very likely to subscribe to a streaming service that allows them to bypass ads completely.
However, 38% of those surveyed feel that radio has an “appropriate” number of advertisements, with only 25% saying radio has “far too many” advertisements. On the other end, 39% feel that paid TV (traditional cable or satellite) has far too many advertisements and 36% feel that free local TV stations run too many ads.
More than half (55%) of those polled feel that podcasts have an appropriate number of advertisers with only 11% saying podcasts have far too many ads.
When asked “How often do you intentionally take action to avoid ads,” only 15% said they do so when listening to radio, the lowest percentage of all mediums. Meanwhile, 25% say they never tune out ads on the radio. According to the Consumer Survey Report, 23% of podcast listeners intentionally take action to avoid ads, while 12% never avoid ads on podcasts.
The medium where consumers avoid commercials the most is free with-ads video services like YouTube, with 32% saying they intentionally take action to avoid ads, followed by live streaming TV services (26%) and free local TV (23%).
