54 stations | 20,325 respondents
The results of this year’s annual national web-based study of public radio listeners are here. Public Radio Techsurvey 2019 measures the highly evolving and fast-changing media and technology environment.
The survey data was gathered online from June 4-June 26, 2019. Overall, 54 public radio stations across the U.S. participated, contributing 20,325 respondents, most of whom are members of these stations’ databases.
Key Findings:
- The power of voice: Ownership of smart speakers continues to rise, up to 24% from 20% one year ago, and 12% in 2017. More than one in four smart speaker owners say they frequently listen to AM/FM radio stations on these voice-controlled devices.
- Privacy concerns abound: Across a variety of privacy issues explored, a large percentage say they are “concerned about the ways in which tech companies are using (their) personal data” (83% agreement), are “concerned with (their) private information being compromised (76% agreement, up from 67% one year ago), and are “looking more closely at the source of news articles recently due to the proliferation of so-called ‘fake news’” (77% agreement, up from 74% in 2018).
- “Trump Bump” or “Trump Slump?”: Almost half (46%) say they are listening to more public radio as a result of the current political climate, led by Millennials (51%) and females (51%). Conversely, about one in five (19%) says they find themselves spending less time with public radio as they increasingly need a break from the news.
- Podcasts remains robust: Overall around one in three (34%) listen to podcasts/on-demand audio weekly or more (vs. 35% one year ago), led by Millennials (70%) and News/Talk partisans (40%); one in four monthly podcast listeners report listening to six or more podcast episodes weekly (up from 21% in 2018 and 16% in 2017).
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