Good news for audio media, not so good news for radio set business.
The fact that almost everyone now has a smartphone that can be used for both linear and streaming radio and television is evident as reported by the Nordicom Media Barometer 2019.
The report shows that the population is well equipped with regard to access to media technology in 2019. During the year, 94% had access to a smartphone, 92% to a television and 86% to a laptop. Media players, such as Apple TV, for 55 percent. Radio receiver ownership continues to decline and is now down to 65%. Nevertheless, audio media accounts for the largest proportion of total media usage.
On a regular day in 2019, the population age 9-79 years spent just over six hours, or more precisely 367 minutes, to access media. Audio media accounted for 37% of total media usage and moving image media for 31%. Text media and social networking services accounted for 17 and 14 percent, respectively, of the total media usage time in 2019.
Here are some interesting findings regarding radio listening:
On an ordinary day in 2019, almost three-quarters - 73 percent - of the Swedish population between 9-79 years listened to radio in some form. In terms of the population as a whole, the traditional forms of radio listening continued to dominate.
The largest share - 50 per cent - is for car radio, while 35 per cent listened to radio on stand-alone radio sets (FM). Just over half as many - 19% - listened to a regular day on podcast or radio afterwards, while 16% listened to live radio over the Internet (web radio). Although there are some regional DAB transmissions in Sweden, this report did not register any listening to DAB radio.
Listening to the podcast was marked by major age differences. The highest range was the ages of 15-44. It was lowest for 65-79 years. When it comes to listening to web radio, it was instead the group 45-64 years that accounted for the most widespread listening. In that group, the highest proportion also listened to car radio.
When it comes to the scope of individual radio channels, Sveriges Radio - the public broadcaster - continues with its dominant position in 2019. On a typical day, nearly half - 46 percent - of the population aged 9-79 listened to one of SR's four main channels via either traditional radio or the Internet. The most popular were P4 and P1 with a daily reach of 27 and 20 percent respectively. For P3 and P2, the proportions were 11 and 4 percent respectively.
32% listened to any private commercial radio channel in 2019. 7% listened to community radio and 2% to any foreign radio channel.
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