Survey: Internet Radio Listening Doubles in Six Months

A study released by The Arbitron Company and Edison Media Research shows that online radio/audio listenership penetration has doubled in six months.

Currently 13 percent of all Americans say they have listened to radio on the Internet. Six months ago, only 6 percent of the participants in the survey said that they listened to radio on the Internet.

The study is an update to a benchmark Internet radio listening study that Arbitron and Edison first conducted in July 1998. Results of the update were presented at the Radio Advertising Bureau Marketing Leadership Conference in Atlanta.

Some 1,350 Arbitron diary keepers were interviewed for the study, entitled, “Radio and E-commerce.”

Other key findings:

• Online access is burgeoning. Currently, 41 percent of all Americans have access to the Internet, either at home or at work. (An additional 9 percent of Americans access the Internet through schools and libraries.) This is up significantly from the 30 percent home/work Internet access figure reported in the first Arbitron/Edison Internet Listening Study conducted last July .
• Median time spent online is holding steady at four hours per week at-home, and 3.4 hours per week at work. This finding indicates that increased Internet traffic is almost entirely due to new users signing on in the past six months.
• More than one quarter (26%) of all online Americans have used the Web for actual shopping.
• This past holiday season, 8 percent of all Americans purchased gifts online. The median household online expenditure for the holidays was $175.
• For radio station Web sites, 23 percent of consumers say they would prefer to buy music from radio station sites, a decided advantage for an industry that looks to music as its key programming element.

“Radio and E-Commerce: Internet Study II” can be accessed from the Arbitron Web site and from Edison Media Research.