Nielsen Q3 report: Continued radio reach, and continued demographic trends

nielsen-total-audience-q3-2016-all-mediaNielsen has released its Total Audience Report for Q3 2016. Radio inched back up to its Q3 2014 levels of 1:52 in media consumption in an average day. Live TV still holds the lion’s share at 4:06. During the period, AM/FM radio had a monthly reach of nearly 263.84 million, up from 260.43 million in the year-ago period. Monthly time spent listening was 55:05 for Q3 2016, compared with 54:16 the year prior. In Q2 2016, monthly reach was 263.7 million.

For the past several quarters, Nielsen’s data has been showing lower uptake for radio among the younger listenership. Q3 is no exception. Weekly time spent with AM/FM radio is just 7:04 for teens aged 12-17, 10:20 for the 18-24 age bracket, and 11:15 for ages 25-34. Those figures mostly edged up from their rates in Q3 2015; for that period, teens had 6:54 weekly time, 18-24 had 10:04 and 25-34 had 11:21. The age brackets of 35 and older show more than an hour increase in weekly time listening to radio. The stat even exceeds 15 hours weekly listening among ages 50-64.

The youngest groups still have notably smaller monthly reach. The number for teens rose from 23,750 to 23,840; ages 18-24 increased from 29,777 to just 29,791.

The highlight of the quarterly report was a data dive into the media consumption of mothers. Nielsen broke down the differences between stay-at-home moms and working parents. Working moms had the higher radio reach at 17.8 million uniques, compared with stay-at-home moms at 9.1 million. Weekly time spent with radio also edged in favor of the working mothers at 13:45 compared with 12:07 for at-home parents. The out-of home radio listening for working moms was 77%, over 57% for stay-at-home moms. The chart of hourly listening habits showed that working parents are tuning in most during the typical commuter hours.

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Anna Washenko