Car iNet Radios Pose Threat To Terrestrial Radio

According to a new study: One third of radio listeners would listen less to local radio if they had easy access to Internet Radio built into their cars.

That’s one of the alarming statistics from a recent national study Mark Ramsey Media conducted in conjunction with VIP Research.  In the study, which was a national survey of more than 2,000 radio listeners covering 22 markets, Ramsey asked this question:

If tomorrow you could get Internet access from the dashboard of your car and you could listen to thousands of radio stations from all over the world through an Internet receiver on your dash as easy to use as your radio, would you…
a.  Listen less to my local radio stations as I explore new ones online
b.  Listen just as much to my local radio stations no matter what’s online

Ramsey asked another question:

Which would you rather have, a radio in your iPod or mp3 player or an Internet radio and access to thousands of stations in your car?
a.  radio in iPod/mp3 player
b.  Internet radio in car
c.  Not applicable
d.  Don’t know

And the results were equally startling, with 61% preferring in-dash Internet Radio over 28% who preferred radio built into their iPods.
So what these statistics add up to is profound according to Ramsey:
1.   Internet Radio in cars has a significant value proposition.
2.   What these numbers suggest is that our obsession to get receivers on mobile devices may be misplaced.  Indeed, we need to worry about long-term relevance in that most mobile of devices:  The car.
Read more here.

Tom comments:  No word on whether participants were asked how likely they were to listen to their favorite terrestrial radio station on an iNet car radio.