Delhiites have highest passion for radio listening, Mumbai is third

Radio Audience Measurement (RAM), a joint venture between Nielsen Media Research and IMRB International along with TAM Media Research, has released a comprehensive study on the radio penetration and viewership pattern of the four metros, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and especially Kolkata as it is the newest addition on the RAM radar.

The penetration of radio is the highest in Delhi of nearly 91%, followed by Bangaluru of about 83%, Mumbai with about 71% and Kolkata about 65%.

The report reveals various facets of the Kolkata market. The study gives a sense of ownership of radio sets amongst audiences, claimed radio usage compared to other media and also reveals a study of household demographics.

Among the FM owners, about 68% owns only radio with FM, 40% owns mobile with FM, 25% two-in-one with FM, 7% owns hi-fi system with FM, and the rest 4% owns walkman or discman with FM. It also shows that 98% of radio owners are FM owners and 89% of the FM owners have access to FM through a portable device.

FM owners profile clearly skewed towards the higher socio economic classes (SEC) and the non-FM are skewed towards lower SEC and these homes comprise more elderly members. On an average, radio listenership is on the peak on Sunday and then gradually the graph goes down through the week and records the lowest on Saturdays. On weekdays, an average listener spends about 105 minutes on the radio, while on weekends, it is about 110 minutes.

Even non-FM owners consume radio either during transit or listen to it on someone else’s radio. Therefore, for non-FM owners, most of the consumption happens on weekdays and on an average, a non-FM listener spends 69 minutes on the radio while on weekends, it is about 55 minutes.

As many as 41% of FM owners also listen to music on any other non-radio music device. On the other hand, only 14% of non-FM owners listen to music on any non-radio music device.

RAM will soon extend its services to Hyderabad and Chennai. The overall advertising volume of the radio industry has gone up 30% and many new advertisers are now treating radio as a serious medium rather than just a ‘by the way’ media platform.

RAM also plans to bring an integrated radio measurement report with AdEx India, which will help in building serious media planning around the medium to calculate better ROI.