Radio listening declines

Johannesburg - People are spending 22 minutes less time listening to the radio on an average weekday than they did a year ago - and the build-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup has done nothing to reverse the trend.

However, the SA Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf), which contracts the research to the Nielsen Company, says the survey was conducted before the start of the actual competition, and radio audiences may well be rising now that the championship is in full swing.

Chances are, however, that people are switching from radio to television because of the World Cup, and many of them might revert to their previous listening habits once the Cup is over.

There has been a slow downward drift in radio listening for some years. A reason could be the growing incidence of TV sets in poorer households. These are now watching television in the evenings instead of listening to the radio. But drive-time radio listening would not be affected by this.

Another reason for the decline could be the installation of TV monitors in taxis, so that passengers watch TV instead of listening to radio. This is unlikely to be a major factor at this stage.

Fieldwork for the urban sample of the Radio Audience Measurement Survey, RAMS, was conducted from mid-January to early May. The smaller urban/rural sample covers July-December 2009.

 - Fin24.com