Bridge Ratings has released a survey of 4000 radio listeners to see how different types of digital media affect their listening, with the results broken down by their favorite format. Those surveyed were asked if their usage of satellite radio, Internet radio, recorded music in general, P2P file sharing, podcasting and MP3 players was affecting listenership to terrestrial radio. Overall, the competing mediums are taking a bite out of regular radio, with an overall decline in the total amount of listening. Many respondents did say that other mediums cause them to listen to the radio more often, especially podcasting (58 percent), P2P file sharing (51 percent) and MP3 players (42 percent). However, radio is losing out mainly to Internet radio, with 55 percent saying it cause them to listen to less traditional radio.
When separated by formats, there was an overall net loss on listenership all the way around, with Rock losing the most listenership to other mediums (-15 percent), followed by CHR (-12 percent) and News/Talk (-10 percent). Other results of the study show that Adult Hits listeners spend more time with terrestrial radio than other choices and Urban listeners spend more time using their MP3 players than listening to their favorite stations. Alternative fans also use other mediums to better inform their radio choices.
"We saw in this study that traditional radio listening benefits from some digital media alternatives," Bridge Ratings President Dave Van Dyke sums things up, saying. "Peer-to-peer file trading, podcasting and MP3 player use can cause increased time spent listening to traditional radio depending on format, while satellite radio and Internet radio can cause reduced listening to conventional radio."
"Knowing which form of digital entertainment benefits your format can be a key to battling the new TSL issues the industry faces today," adds Van Dyke.
The complete survey results can be found here.
