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.
