Some feared a decline in audio consumption when the pandemic began, expecting the end of commutes to mean reduced listening hours. However, throughout the past two years, Australians collectively reached for their earphones to listen to their favourite radio shows, music, or podcasts. Rather than listening to the radio in cars and offices, people tuned in while on their daily walks or when working from home, streaming from their laptops.
“We really are living in the glory days for audio,” says Peter Charlton, NOVA Entertainment CEO.
“Not since the advent of the Walkman in the early ’80s have we seen the same kind of exponential increase in personal audio consumption.
“We’re seeing considerable, ongoing growth in both audience size and time spent, which is a claim very few — if any — other mediums can make right now. People are genuinely making more time in their day for audio, which we know is a privileged position to be in as a publisher.”
Data from the annual Infinite Dial Australia 2021 study, released by Edison Research and Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) in April 2021, showed that digital audio continued to grow this year, with Australians listening to more podcasts.
The study found that 86% of Australians aged 12 years and above listened to radio over-the-air, online and via catch-up radio podcasts over a one-month period and 37% had listened to a podcast in the past month.
Smart speaker ownership also increased sharply, with 26% of the population owning a smart speaker, up 17% the year prior. The study also found that the number of Australians 12 years and above who listen to online audio weekly including radio, internet-only services and podcasts, increased to 66% of the population from 63% a year ago. The average time spent listening to online audio was more than 12 hours per week.
Lauren Joyce, chief strategy and connections officer at ARN, says the network saw the rate of migration from traditional to digital formats increase from 10% to 20% during 2020 due to COVID-19.
“Post-COVID-19 — if that’s a thing — it has regulated at around 15%,” says Joyce.
“I think we’ll see these levels of migration maintained, but for those who have already migrated, we will see an increase in the volume of content they consume as they become more familiar with using their streaming platform of choice and as publishers become better at guiding their audiences around their offering.
“For advertisers, this presents a greater volume of inventory to play around in, ultimately presenting an opportunity to better tailor their communications environmentally and to start thinking about tactical media buying strategies such as sequential creative messaging.”
Other radio networks across Australia saw similar trends from listeners, with Nova Entertainment CEO Peter Charlton saying the pandemic demonstrated the loyalty of radio audiences.
“Despite everything, they’ve come out of 2021 largely unscathed,” Charlton says.
“We obviously saw a shift in
