Do satellite listeners remain loyal to traditional radio?
Arbitron says satellite listeners are in fact “heavy listeners to radio in general,” including AM/FM radio. It put out a summary this week of stats about satellite listening based on its fall survey.
Satellite listeners spent an average of 33 hours a week with radio compared with the typical listener, who listened approximately 19 hours a week to radio, it said.
In fact, people who listened to satellite still spent more time with AM/FM radio (14 hours) than they did with satellite radio (10 hours 45 minutes) or the Internet (8 hours 15 minutes).
The research firm says the sum of listening to satellite channels mentioned by a half-million diary keepers totaled 3.4 percent of credited quarter hours, a rough equivalent of “share.” The survey was the first in which new instructions were provided in the diary asking respondents to indicate listening to satellite and Internet radio in addition to AM/FM.
“Respondents mentioned 297 separate satellite radio channels during the Fall 2006 survey. Arbitron’s recent analysis revealed that the highest share of quarter hours for an individual satellite radio channel was 0.2 percent. The average satellite radio channel had a .009 percent share of quarter hours, which would not be high enough to meet Arbitron’s minimum reporting standards,” it stated.
“Approximately 5.6 percent (rough equivalent of reach) of the 468,786 diary keepers who participated in the Fall 2006 Arbitron survey listed a satellite radio channel in their diary.”
