Insight Analysis: Radio Goes Online To Net More Listeners
This week Virgin Radio unveiled plans to launch four new standalone radio brands that will be broadcast exclusively over the internet. The stations offer Virgin listeners music selections alternative to the playlist used on the main Virgin station. Virgin has also embraced the net by selling advertising specifically on its web broadcasts. The introduction of the four new niche net stations gives Virgin the opportunity to offer advertisers and sponsors an even more focused listenership.
But is anyone actually listening? Well, if the US model of take-up is anything to go by internet radio in the UK should go from strength to strength given sufficient development of access technologies. In the States more than a fifth of the population has tuned in to an online station. In the UK about 6.3% of the audience has listened to a station via the web, according to RAJAR research. It is most popular with the young, ABC1s and men are heavier users than women – 9.6% of men have listened to a station via its site, compared to just 3.2% of women.
The good news for advertisers is that commercial radio listeners are more likely to be regular users of the internet generally, with 31% logging on at least once a week. A lot of research has also showed that listening to the radio and using the internet are complementary activities, perhaps illustrated by the fact that 75% of regular net users listen to commercial radio each week, compared to 64.7% for the population as a whole. Continental Research’s study shows that 47% of regular users claim to listen to the radio whilst online, compared to just 18% watching TV.
Currently the benefits of listening online are not obvious. Sound quality is usually low, connection speeds are often not up to the job and, naturally, you need to be online. However, given unlimited, fast access to the net the proposition starts to make more sense. Listeners can access stations outside their own region – indeed from anywhere in the world, advertisers can sponsor broadcasts or stations with a particular audience – as with Virgin’s new niche offerings – and frequency space is not an issue. Operators can also flag up the records they are playing and offer them for sale online.
Continental believes that radio is proving to be an effective advertising medium to direct people to websites – almost a third of regular users have looked at a website as a result of a radio advert, up from 17% last year.