For Immediate Release:
Page Three
Net Effect on Time Spent Listening
The study also examined the impact that use of various media has had on listening to traditional radio. Responses were based on the following question:
"Does the time you spend at each of the following activities make you listen to more or less terrestrial radio or does it have no effect?"
Note that the question does not attempt to quantify "how much more" or, more importantly, "how much less"; a respondent would answer "less" whether the impact has been to reduce their listening of traditional radio by 10% or 100%.
The following table presents key results from this question. They are the net value of the proportion of respondents who indicated that the activity made them listen to more conventional radio minus the proportion who said it made them listen less.
For example, 7% of respondents indicated that time spent exchanging files on peer-to-peer networks increased the time they spent listening to terrestrial radio, but 24% stated that it decreased it - a net effect of -17%.
One note of caution related to interpreting these results: listening to one's own music collection, be that on CD's, cassettes or a digital device, is not a new activity. Its effect has long been absorbed in the adjustments people make to the use of their time and, in particular, the time they spend listening to traditional radio. Otherwise stated, if the question dealing with one's own music collection had been asked ten years ago (prior to when any of the new media options were available), it is highly likely that the same effect of own-music listening on radio listening would have been observed.
Net Effect on Traditional Radio Listening
| |
Net Effect on Terrestrial radio among users |
% of the population carrying out the activity weekly |
Net effect on Terrestrial radio among total sample 15-64 |
| Listening to Music collection |
-17% |
46% |
-8% |
| Streaming non-radio |
-19% |
8% |
-2% |
| Internet radio* |
-19% |
15% |
-2% |
| P2P |
-17% |
12% |
-2% |
| Podcasting |
-4% |
2% |
-0.2% |
| Other music downloads |
-14% |
8% |
-1% |
| Satellite radio |
-12% |
4% |
-2% |
One key observation is that all new media examined have some negative net impact on TSL to traditional radio, ranging from an impact of -4% for podcasting to one of -19% for listening to streamed media on the Internet (radio or not). Note again that these figures cannot be interpreted as percentage loss in TSL since the impact is not to drop traditional radio altogether. For example, the -19% net impact by Internet radio does not mean that 19% of Internet radio listeners stopped listening to terrestrial radio, but rather that they reduced their time spent listening.
The effect of each of these activities on traditional radio must take into account the number of Americans who carry them out. For example, if an activity had the effect of completely moving listening away from terrestrial radio but was carried out by 1% of the population, then the effect on traditional radio would be a 1% reduction in TSL.
Even under these exaggerated conditions, the global effect of new media is marginal. Internet streaming (including simulcasting) has had a reduction effect of 2%, for example, (assuming the reduction is total), as have P2P. Podcasting measures very little impact (0.2%). While use among satellite radio subscribers has had a -12% impact - even with 11 million U.S. subscribers - use across the total sample has been reduced by only 2%.
The results of this study suggest that while disparate segments of the U.S. population using various new media may be spending slightly less time with traditional radio, the composite impact of these variances at this time is minimal.
Bridge Ratings will update this information in a similar study later this year.
For additional information contact Dave Van Dyke at 818.291.6420.
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