AM/FM radio is now reaching 40% more American consumers, 18-49, than TV, according to Nielsen’s newly-released Total Audience Report for Q3 2023.
The report indicates radio now has an average audience advantage more than 12 points ahead that of television, with adults 18+.
Meanwhile, radio’s weekly reach with the 18-49 demo tied social media for first place at 81%, slightly ahead of online video (79%) and connected TV devices (78%), with live and time-shifted TV placing a distant fifth at 58%.
Among the report’s insights are that 59% of tuning is happening outside of drive times with midday radio tuning (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.) outperforming other dayparts, accounting for 26% of total time spent with AM/FM. Morning drive came in second at (21%) and afternoon drive a close third at 20%. Weekend listening is attracting almost as much listening as drive time at 20%.
Nielsen notes that’s drastically different from the advertiser perception that more than half of all AM/FM radio listening happens during morning and afternoon drive, when it actually accounts for just 41% of time spent with AM/FM.
TV audiences collapsing
Nielsen first reported 12 months ago that radio’s reach had overtaken that of TV, going further in its latest data release to term linear television’s decline amongst audiences 18-49, as a “collapse.”
Since 2018, the 18-49 weekly reach of live and time-shifted TV has dropped 29%. Over the same period, TV’s daily time spent is down 62% from almost three hours a day to an hour a day, according to Total Audience data.
Nielsen says half of the linear TV audience is now 65+. Just one-fifth of the average audience is 18-49 with the remaining 80% over the age of 50.
Conversely, Nielsen finds AM/FM radio has more even cross-demographic distribution with 40% of listeners, aged 18-49, and 31% aged 50-64.
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