The Infinite Dial 2014 review part 1: The growth of online listening

The Infinite Dial, a large-scale research survey of consumer media usage in its 22nd year, was unleashed today by Edison Research and sponsor Triton Digital. Triton is newly involved in the project, replacing former partner Arbitron. As in past years, The Infinite Dial 2014 was unveiled in a multimedia webinar hosted by Edison’s Tom Webster and Triton’s Mike Agovino.

The presentation began with broad trends in online radio listening.

A headline graphic started things off: 124-million Americans, 47% of the 12+ population, have listened to online radio during the last month. (“Online radio” ecompasses both AM/FM streams and Internet-only streams.) That percentage escalates dramatically in the 12-24 age cohort, to 75%. (Only 21% of the 55+ crowd listened online in the previous month.)

What about listening with much greater frequency, every week? Those results were 36% of 12+ Americans, or 94-million people. (64% for 12-24; 13% for 55+.)

Taking the frequency metrics (weekly listening), the study authors wanted to know about trending. Adding the 2014 responses to previous Infinite Dials, the continued growth trend of time spent listening weekly to online radio was evident: