ESPN Audio Gets Nearly Half of All Sports Radio Listening

ESPN Audio’s content – the ESPN Radio Network’s national talk shows and live events, affiliated local broadcast radio stations and podcasting – accounts for nearly half (46%) of all sports radio listenership in the U.S., according to the most recent “Share of Ear” survey by Edison Research.

In addition, the survey showed that one in five reported listening to ESPN Audio’s programming weekly – nearly 50 million Americans.

Among ESPN Audio listeners, 71% listened on terrestrial AM/FM radio, the highest percentage.  Forty-six percent of listeners said that they listened via streaming audio while 26% used SiriusXM and 25% listened to podcasts.  (Numbers add up to more than 100% as users could cite multiple choices.)  In addition, time spent listening climbed in 2017 for all four platforms.

ESPN Radio’s weekday national talk show lineup is highlighted by Golic and Wingo which debuted in November, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, The Stephen A. Smith Show and The Will Cain Show which debuted in January.  The network’s live event lineup is highlighted by the NFL, NBA including an extensive playoff schedule including The NBA Finals, college football including most bowl games and The College Football National Championship, college basketball, Major League Baseball including the entire playoffs and World Series.

“ESPN provides premium voices and premium sporting events across as many devices as possible so it’s exciting to see that sports fans spend half their time with us,” said John Fitzgerald, vice president, multimedia sales ESPN Audio. “In a fragmented media world SHARE matters.  We work diligently with our advertisers to use that to drive performance for their brands and will continue to look for ways to engage with sports fans and their consumers.”

Edison President Larry Rosin commented, “ESPN consistently remains a major player in sports listening, reaching nearly one-fifth of Americans every week through their audio content – broadcast radio, satellite radio, streaming, and podcasts.”