Report: Australian Radio Among Most Heavily Consumed

The Infinite Dial Australia 2020 study released today by Edison Research shows 82% of Australians aged 12 and over listened to radio over the air, online or via catch-up podcasts in the last week, holding steady with last year’s 83% figure.

Radio Info reports the research was conducted in the first quarter of 2020, prior to the lockdowns from the COVID-19 pandemic, and is a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,014 people aged 12 and older, with data weighted to national 12+ population figures.

Twelve per cent of the population listened to radio online in the last week, up from 10% a year ago.

Podcast listening continued to grow steadily, with 17% listening to a podcast in the last week, up from 15% in 2019 and 13% in 2018, and while this lags about 2 years behind the US, it appears on track to get to 20% within the next two years.

Weekly podcast listeners listened to six podcasts per week on average. Smartphones and tablets were the devices used most often to listen to podcasts – with 85% listening this way versus 11% using a computer.

Edison Research president Larry Rosin, said it was possible that Australians had yet to be exposed to enough bespoke podcasting that was more relevant to the population, and that Catch Up Radio podcasting was probably more successful here because of Australians bigger radio consumption.

Other key Infinite Dial 2020 Australia findings include:

• At–home is the location most Australians have consumed a podcast. Eighty-one percent of podcast listeners in Australia age 12+ have listened to a podcast at home and 45% have listened in a car/truck.
• 85% of podcast listeners in Australia age 12+ most often listen to podcasts on their smartphone/tablet or portable device, 11% listen to podcasts most often on their computer, and 3% listen most often on an in-car entertainment system. 
• Of the total 12+ population in Australia, 14% own a Google Home smart speaker, and no other smart speaker brands have more than 1% ownership.
• 33% of those in Australia age 12+ who have driven or ridden in a car in the last month have used an online audio streaming service, up from 26% last year and just 8% two years ago.
• AM/FM/DAB+ is the audio source used most often in car: 66% of those in Australia age 12+ use AM/FM/DAB+ most often. Eleven percent listen to owned music most often and 19% listen to internet-only audio most often.