According to Nielsen Audio, average quarter-hour listening of AM/FM radio increased 23% in April 2021, compared to 2020.
With many employees moving to the outer suburbs amid COVID-19, commuting hours in the US drastically reduced, resulting in decreased radio listening time. This further resulted in more “personal time” to consume media, and at-home media like video games, streaming videos, podcasts grew.
However, as the pandemic restrictions eased in Q3 2020, consumption of in-car radio recovered, as per an Edison Research report. Terrestrial radio at 87% accounted for all ad-supported in-car listening, followed by SiriusXM (6%) and podcasts (5%), ad-supported Pandora (2%) and ad-supported Spotify (1%).
BIA Advisory Services forecasts $12.6 billion in ad dollar for local radio in 2021. Also, the average weekly cumulative audience for AM/FM radio reached 98% of March 2020 levels, in April 2021, as per the Nielsen report.
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