 |
Tech
Poll V Survey Characterizes Media Usage
Jacobs Media
(Southfield, Mich., www.jacobsmedia.com)
is a U.S. radio consulting firm specializing in Rock formats.
Since 2005, they have been conducting an annual Web-based media
usage survey of Rock radio listeners and publishing the results
as a “Tech Poll.” This year’s study is called “Tech
Poll V” and is the fifth consecutive study of its kind. It
is a follow-up to the previous four studies, and together these
studies offer an interesting look into how media usage has changed
in the last five years. The information that follows has been
taken from a 22-page Executive Summary of Tech Poll V, recently
released by Jacobs Media.
The “Media
Usage Pyramid” shown in the figure below is a graphic device
developed by Jacobs Media to illustrate how the rock radio listeners
polled use old and new media, as well as gadgets, and how these
habits are changing over time. Four pyramids are included in the
Executive Summary – one each for Classic, Alternative, and
Active Mainstream rock listeners and a fourth which includes all
of these categories of listeners combined (“Totals,”
the one shown here). The pyramids are especially helpful in understanding
the media/devices that radio listeners use, and their relative
“pecking order.” The numbers next to each category indicate
the percent of respondents who use each media (qualified by the
notes just below the pyramid itself), and the numbers on the right
indicate the percent change in each media usage category from
the 2008 poll to the 2009 poll.
This year’s study was conducted from February 17- March 8,
2009. Data was collected from 21,143 respondents from a total
of 64 Classic, Mainstream/Active, and Alternative Rock stations
in markets as diverse as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Knoxville,
and Omaha (no single station contributed more than 2.8% of the
responses to the survey). Responses were solicited using an email
invitation, sent to members of each participating station’s
email database. All data were collected online, and efforts were
made to prevent duplicate submissions. Jacobs Media notes that
this Web poll has inherent limitations, and that unlike a national
Gallup Poll (for example) this Web poll did not attempt to balance
demographic or geographic sampling.
Some
of the key findings of this year’s poll include the following:
Nearly half
(47%) of respondents who indicate they’re planning on purchasing/leasing
a new vehicle in 2009 say the ability to connect an iPod or MP3
player to the vehicle’s sound system is very important. A
GPS is mentioned by nearly one-fourth (24%), followed by a DVD
player (18%), satellite radio (16%), Sync (11%), and HD Radio
(9%);
Internet
streaming has experienced a healthy jump. Today, four in ten (39%)
say they listen to streaming audio weekly, almost double the totals
from the first study in 2005 (23%);
More than eight in ten stations (84%) now provide a streaming
version of their signal on the Internet. As a result of the station
streaming, an impressive majority (53%) say they now listen to
these stations a little more or a lot more, particularly iPhone
owners;
When respondents were asked to check off all their sources of
music exposure, 85% point to FM radio, followed by friends (57%),
movies and TV shows (both with 33%), music television channels
(28%), and kids (23%). iTunes, social networking sites, YouTube,
print sources, sites like Pandora, videogames, and satellite radio
are all mentioned by fewer than one-fifth of the total sample;
Eight in
ten (81%) respondents say they’ve purchased recorded music
in the past year. Of these, nine in ten (90%) say they’ve
bought music in the CD format, while more than half (54%) indicate
they’ve downloaded digital music files from sites like iTunes
and Amazon.com;
Six of every
ten (63%) say that being a member of the radio station’s
email club generates a stronger bond with the station. These numbers
are consistent across-the-board, and also very similar to past
years’ polls with no respondents indicating that the email
club has harmed the relationship, suggesting that most stations
aren’t “spamming” their audiences;
Familiarity
with HD Radio technology continues to improve. This year, more
than half (59%) say they know about it (or own one) – up
from 49% in ’08;
On satisfaction
by owners of HD Radio technology, 37 percent report being satisfied,
while three in ten (30%) are very satisfied. Conversely, about
one-fifth (22%) are neutral, while one in ten (11%) expresses
some level of dissatisfaction with an HD Radio product.
A copy of
the Jacobs Media Tech Poll V – 2009 Executive Summary is
available for download on the Jacobs Media Webpage at www.jacobsmedia.com/articles/tech5main.asp.
An archived webinar (which was originally conducted on April 13,
2009) on this survey is also available at this link.
| Radio
TechCheck will not be published on May 25 but will return
on June 1. |
The May 18, 2009 Radio TechCheck is also available
in an Adobe Acrobat file.
Please
click
here to read the Adobe Acrobat version of Radio TechCheck
|
