Terrestrial Radio’s Share of Internet Radio Listening Hits New High

Traditional radio is carving out a bigger piece of the Internet radio pie.
According to a J.P. Morgan report, terrestrial radio’s share of total unique visitors hit a new high in November, now at 33.1% compared to 66.9% for Internet operators.
Overall, the number of unique visitors to Internet radio in the past 12 months is up 44%, according to a J.P. Morgan report, to 55 million. Since November 2005, the Internet audience has grown at a 3.1% monthly compounded rate.
Growth in November was driven by sites run by both terrestrial and Internet radio operators, “though terrestrial had the slight edge,” the authors stated. “The terrestrial operators broke a string of two consecutive declines to grow their unique visitors about 5% sequentially, while the Internet operators rebounded after three straight months of declines to grow close to 2%.”
The authors state that, “On a year-over-year basis, growth is much stronger, reflecting the terrestrial operators’ recent investments into their digital/online operations. Unique visitors to the terrestrial operators’ sites are up more than 110% year over year, while the Internet operators’ sites are up about 25% year over year.”
Clear Channel’s number of unique visitors grew 14% in November over the month before, to 8.2 million; the company now represents close to 45% of all unique visitors to terrestrial operators’ sites, J.P. Morgan said. “Its success has become critical in driving overall growth in the terrestrial operators’ sites.”
Between them, Clear Channel and CBS Radio sites represent more than 20% of the total Internet radio audience.