Jacobs Media Unveils Techsurvey 2019 At Worldwide Radio Summit

Results Unveiled

FRED JACOBS unveiled the results of TECHSURVEY 2019 at the WORLDWIDE RADIO SUMMIT in BURBANK TODAY (3/28), with new intelligence on consumer media preferences, from devices to social media to performing holograms. The numbers showed the increasing importance of voice control, the decline of some social media platforms, some good-news-bad-news about podcasts, and the critical need for radio to remain dominant in cars

The session started with the annual revision of the Media Pyramids, and JACOBS noted that the pyramids are fairly static from last year, but he pointed to an increase in use of phones connected to cars and smart TVs as significant, along with the expected growth of smart speakers ("we're talking iPhone growth here"); he also pointed to a drop for podcasts, near the top (lowest usage) of the pyramid.    The pyramids for men and women, JACOBS said, were similar, but certain things were more "guy things" or "woman things," and, perhaps surprisingly, women were more likely to play video games.

The brand pyramid showed NETFLIX continuing its growth along with other video streaming (AMAZON and HULU), but FACEBOOK, PANDORA, and SNAPCHAT are showing declines.   Another pyramid compared Millennials (more into INSTAGRAM and SNAPCHAT) to Boomers (favoring FACEBOOK and SIRIUSXM more than their younger counterparts).

Regarding broadcast radio listening, the primary advantages cited by listeners were ease of use, the price (free), personality, and, less than in past years, music, which JACOBS attributed to the growth of other options to get music.  Emotional benefits -- feeling a connection, radio being "company," getting into a better mood -- also ranked highly.  Remaining "giant," JACOBS said, was radio's local orientation (it "absolutely matters," he asserted), and the free nature of AM/FM radio was big with all demographics but especially with younger, cash-strapped listeners.

The numbers for people listening to AM/FM radio more and less were similar from last year, but the reasons have changed, and the top reason was having more audio options in the car ("that's a biggie," JACOBS said).

Listening to radio stations via digital means has grown, up from 27% of listening last year to 31% this year, continuing a seven-year trend that began at 14% in 2013.

Asked how likely they'd be to recommend their preferred radio station to others, the average for all formats was 42%, topped by a big margin by Christian stations, with public radio second and others - Rock, Country, Top 40 -- following.  Lowest was the News-Talk format.

On podcasting, one in ten said they listen to a podcast every day, but JACOBS said that 49% said they never listen to podcasts.  Among the people who do listen to podcasts, Millennials and Gen-Z were more likely to listen, and men more than women, but 35% of public radio listeners listen to podcasts, which accounts for the flatness of the commercial radio results.  JACOBS also pointed to how podcast time spent listening is trending sharply up; "once we get people discovering podcasting and listening to podcasting," he said, "boom, they're in."  Smartphones are by a wide margin the main listening platform for podcasts, with smart speakers showing growth.  And for discovery, the top way people find shows is by word of mouth.

The survey also looked at voice command usage, with the primary takeaway that the use of voice commands to access media is taking hold, something particularly critical since ownership of AM/FM radios is declining while smart speaker ownership is sharply increasing.  But JACOBS also noted that few users are downloading Alexa skills, using the devices for answers to general questions, weather reports, timers, and listening to AM/FM station streams ("we actually have an opportunity to win the home back," he contended).

"We absolutely have to protect the car," JACOBS said of the growth of other audio options on the dashboard.  While broadcast radio remains atop those options at 59% usage, JACOBS pointed out that those with connected cars showed a sharp increase in listening to satellite radio and a commensurate decrease for AM/FM listening, which he attributed to the difficulty of use of streaming through phones to the car audio systems.

Also covered by the survey were the decline of PANDORA usage, the increase of use of smartphones as alarm clocks, app downloads (while PANDORA remains second to YOUTUBE, it is declining; listeners said they prefer individual station apps to aggregator streaming apps), and usage of social media (FACEBOOK remains by a wide margin the dominant platform based on usage; "fake news" has caused older males to spend less time with social media), video games (females and younger generation listeners are more likely to play them, and mobile devices are the most popular platform for listeners' gaming), music discovery (AM/FM still leads, but the trend is down, yet no other single source is gaining), whether people will pay to see a "hologram concert" as in the ROY ORBISON tour (more interest among Gen-Z and Millennials, but a majority said no), and online shopping (four in ten did all or most of their holiday shopping online).

The survey included listeners from 519 commercial North American radio stations with 50,652 responses, surveyed JANUARY 3rd-FEBRUARY 3rd.

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