Mediapulse: Study on web radio consumption published

Free of broadcasting licenses and national borders, web radio stations can reach a potentially huge audience, writes Mediapulse in a statement. The offering on the Internet is correspondingly diverse. But what about usage? Will radio consumption really become borderless, mobile and international? The first comprehensive study by Mediapulse on web radio consumption in Switzerland (520 interviews in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland) shows that web radio is not yet a competitor to conventional radio consumption. Although around one in five Swiss listens to the radio occasionally via the Internet, live web radio achieves a daily reach of only 6 percent; compared with 88 percent for conventional radio, this is still low.

55 percent of web radio listeners opt for reception via the Internet because they cannot otherwise receive the desired station. At 41 percent, Swiss private radio stations have the highest market share of web radio consumption. 25 percent of web radio usage is accounted for by SRG stations.

Use on the move not very widespread

There are clear differences in sociodemographics: the younger people are, the more frequently and longer they consume web radio. Web radio use is thus just the opposite of conventional radio use, where older people consume more frequently and for longer. However, if all forms of use are cumulated, older people still spend more than twice as much time listening to the radio.

Web radio is consumed almost exclusively in the office (53 percent of total usage time) and at home (43 percent). At 4 percent, use on the move is much less widespread. Accordingly, consumption via cell phone has also been rather low to date: On average, web radio users consume only four minutes per day via cell phone (compared to 50 minutes via computer and 12 minutes via Internet radio device).

(Image: Keystone)