PUBLIC RADIO’S AFFINITY WITH YOUTUBE NEARS 50% • 92% OF U.S. ADULTS LISTEN TO RADIO EACH WEEK

Public radio stations have had notable success multi-versioning content onto digital platforms such as podcasting. But a new study shows the greatest opportunity to expand public service may be via YouTube.

The Radio Research Consortium (RRC) last week distributed a study by Scarborough Research that shows YouTube is the top Audio and/or Video streaming service among public radio listeners. We appreciate RRC making Scarborough data available to the system.

As the chart on the right shows, YouTube, followed closely by Netflix, are by far the top two streaming services. Netflix is a known video streaming powerhouse with a huge catalog and subscription fees. YouTube is a do-it-yourself service that is free to access and easy to use. Public radio stations should keep their attention on their YouTube page because so many of our listeners are already.

Spark News did a quick review of station YouTube pages and found there are three groups:  

1.) A few stations are using YouTube as a strategic way to extend service and enhance their brand.

2.) Most stations have a token YouTube page that is seldom updated and has only modest usage.

3.) Quite a few stations have no presence on YouTube.

We found two examples of stations using YouTube strategically with excellent results:

KCRW’s YouTube page [link] has almost 300,000 subscribers and hundreds of videos. KCRW is using YouTube to reinforce their music programming.

WGBH TV/FM YouTube page [link] focuses on news and has around 12,000 subscribers.  The WGBH page is updated several times a day.

Vuhaus [link], a public media service, is also a video provider that works closely with AAA music stations nationwide.

NIELSEN’S TOTAL AUDIENCE REPORT SHOWS TRADITIONAL RADIO IS STILL THE TOP AUDIO PLATFORM

Nielsen’s Third Quarter 2018 Total Audience Report verifies what other research has confirmed many times during the past few years: 

Traditional radio is by far the nation’s leading audio platform. 

This news may be boring to some folks, but it is important information for  public media content creators. When pitching new show ideas, keep in mind that Podcast + Radio = Success.

According to Nielsen 92% of the nations adults listen to AM or FM radio during a typical week.  

Despite the hype and hoopla about podcasting, radio has more than four times as many weekly listeners as podcasts.

Radio is probably the most successful “old media” platform

Consider radio's steady performance with the declining use of magazines, printed newspapers and network television.

Nielsen says that U.S. adults are spending 10 hours and 30 minutes per day with various types of mass media. This number has not changed much during the past year.

When looking at mass media consumption by age group, the share of time spent on each platform increases with age. 

The heaviest users of media are people over the age of 50.

People in the 18 – 34 age group consume the largest percentage of their time (47%) on digital platforms.

Note that, regardless of age, radio usage consistently accounts for between 15% and 18% of daily media use.

Our favorite chart in Nielsen’s Third Quarter 2018 Total Audience Report is on the left.   

It shows the major reasons why people don’t use fee-based video streaming services.   

The top reasons are versions of “I don’t care” and “I don’t know how to do it.”

These reasons are very similar to why people don’t listen to podcasts.

Compare the Nielsen chart above to the next chart on the left from Jacobs Media’s Public Radio Tech Survey for 2018. 

“I don’t care” and “I don’t know how to do it” are common with podcast avoiders.  (Note: The two surveys are based on different participants and use different methodologies.)

KEN SAYS: There is an important lesson for podcasters. Having to pay a fee is a big negative for people who don’t use streaming video. 

Some people say that public media podcasters should adopt a fee system like Netflix. A couple of weeks ago we wrote about a consultant [link] who is pushing this mantra.  

The Nielsen data implies that if fees are required to access podcasts, it will add one more reason to the list of why people won’t listen to them.