America’s main ratings company, Nielsen, has just released its quarterly audio listening figures.

The findings show that Americans spend almost 20%, 4 hours and 5 minutes, of every day with audio.

Listening habits across both ad-supported and ad-free platforms were studied, including radio, podcasts, streaming music services and satellite radio. Satellite subscription radio is significant in the US, but not in Australia.The research was conducted between April and June, 2024.

The findings break down listening to audio platforms as follows:

• 67% of daily listening time is spent with ad-supported radio
• 19% of daily listening time is to podcasts,
• 11% to streaming audio music services
• 3% to satellite ad-free subscription radio.

In this American election year, News/Talk has moved to the top listened format, followed by Adult Contemporary Music, Country then Classic Hits. The study includes broadcast and streaming consumption.

Streaming music platforms include both ad-supported tiers and ad-free tiers. While it is not known what percentage of streaming music listeners hear ads because they do not publish these figures, the industry estimate is that about one third of streaming music listeners are on the ad-supported tier, while the other two thirds pay a subscription fee so as not to listen to advertising.

In America, some of the News-Talk formats (mostly national public radio) are ad-free or sponsor supported, decreasing the amount  of advertising heard by News-Talk listeners. Language based formats are also significant in America, but not in Australia.

The share of streaming listening by format is generally higher for News and Sports programming and some rock-based formats including Alternative and Classic Rock.

18-to-34 year-olds listen to less radio (about 50%) and more podcasts (about 35%) than the older demographic segments.  Older demographics, those aged over 35 in the Nielsen study, listen to more radio (about 75%) and less podcasts (about 15%). Click the chart to enlarge and see the exact figures.

Nielsen and Edison Research combined their research data and methods to show average daily usage and share of listening for U.S. audiences.  The research is useful for advertisers who are deciding how much audio to include in their marketing mix and what sectors to spend their money on.

Reporting and Analysis: Steve Ahern