Terrestrial Radio Competition

Among Americans using different “listening” technologies available today, terrestrial radio continues to dominate in terms of the number of people listening for five minutes or more in an average week. 93% of Americans still tune in weekly. Satellite radio was the expected biggest threat to terrestrial radio, but with still a relatively small percentage of radio users actually subscribing (6%), the audience numbers still stack up favorably for terrestrial radio. However, based on the Bridge Ratings study conducted in the summer of ’09, satellite radio listeners are the most loyal as they spend the greatest amount of time listening – 20+ hours per week. They are followed by terrestrial and internet radio at about 17 and 13+ hours respectively, while the amount of time spent listening to MP3 players and HD radio was almost the same, at around 12 hours a week.

Perhaps the greatest concern is in the decrease of terrestrial radio’s popularity over time. When asked if they intend to listen more, the same or less in the following year, 25% said they expect to listen to terrestrial radio less.

Today’s listeners are increasingly more mobile, progressively busier and on the whole, over-stimulated. Terrestrial radio is like most other traditional media forms in that it needs to evolve with the times in order to maintain reach, appeal and effective audience engagement. Regardless of the changing media landscape, their key strengths remain:

– Live and local programming and content

– Ability to build relationships with listeners

• Local DJs interaction with listeners through daily contests and offers

• Radio remote broadcasts

• Event and concerts presence

Experts agree that terrestrial radio needs to showcase these key attributes to separate itself from the competition, create engaging consumer environments and stake its claim inside the 360 degrees of consumer touchpoints.