In 2017, The Atlantic ran a story entitled “Podcasting is the new Talk-Radio.” It argued that Podcasting takes the “codes and crafts” of radio but adds “flexibility and chronicity—whenever and wherever you want, but you’ll hear from us again next week.”
While the intervening years are proving this argument correct, we can use Edison Research’s Share of Ear® data to determine whether the ‘new Talk Radio’ has yet passed by the incumbent. All audio consumption is categorized by ‘content’ so we can strip away music listening and only look at the spoken word audio universe of news, sports talk and play-by-play, audiobooks, talk shows, and ‘personalities.’ At the time of The Atlantic’s publication in 2017, 66% of spoken word audio went to AM/FM radio, and 13% to podcasting.
Fast forward to today, and the race is far closer. AM/FM now accounts for 43% of spoken word listening, and podcasts 36%. So, the margin has gone from 53 percentage points to 7 in the last seven years. Podcasting’s share of spoken word will almost surely surpass that of AM/FM within a few more years.
There is one more thing to note – the advantage for AM/FM is coming entirely from those age 65 and older. Among those ages 13-64, podcasting has already passed AM/FM listening by, 41% to 39%. Meanwhile, among the oldest Americans age 65+, AM/FM radio continues to dominate, with a 66%-13% advantage. Curiously, that 66%-13% difference among the oldest Americans is the exact same difference we recorded for all Americans 13+ in 2017.
Register for the Sports Audio Report: Female Fans
Edison Research announces that the Sports Audio Report: Female Fans with SiriusXM Media and GroupM will be presented in a webinar on Tuesday, July 16 at 2 PM EDT.
This webinar will explore the unique audio listening habits of U.S. female sports fans and show how they interact with sports beyond the field. The webinar will be presented by Salma Aly, Manager of Research at Edison Research and Sophie Anderson, Associate Director, Podcast Sales Marketing at SiriusXM Media.
