Q4 2024 Audio Trends: N/Talk, AC, Country Lead 18+

The end of the year is typically a busy time for media in the U.S., and 2024 was no exception for audio. The final three months of 2024 were jam packed with news, sports and entertainment topics galore. Audio accounted for nearly 20% of American’s daily media time in the fourth-quarter of 2024—that translates to 3 hours and 54 minutes of daily listening across both ad-supported and ad-free platforms like radio, podcasts, streaming music services and satellite radio.

The Record is a quarterly report card on how U.S. consumers spend their listening time, fueled by Nielsen and Edison Research. While advertisers are constantly tracking changes in consumer behavior to improve the impact of their cross-channel marketing, The Record helps cut through with a unique representation of the time spent with ad-supported audio channels.

Share of Audio 18-34

Share of Audio 25-54

During the fourth quarter of 2024 (Oct-Dec), listeners spent 67% of their daily time with ad-supported audio with radio, 18% with podcasts, 12% with streaming audio services and 3% with satellite radio. Those figures are nearly identical to the previous quarter, with only streaming audio increasing by just one percent. This speaks to the consistent demand for daily audio in the American media diet.

Radio accounts for anywhere from 47% of daily ad-supported audio time (among people 18-34) to 74% (among 35+), while podcasts are inverse; 13% of daily audio time for people 35 and older goes to podcasts compared with 32% among those 18-34.

Radio Formats Share of Total Audience (OTA + Streaming)

It comes as no surprise that, similar to viewing trends surfaced in The Gauge for the final months of the year, both news and sports formats saw increased audience levels. This is expected every four years surrounding national elections, and annually as Major League Baseball playoffs combine with the National Football League season in full gear to peak our interest in sports-talk radio.

The other annual behavioral change is the significant increase in listening to the Adult Contemporary (AC) format when many stations flip to the ‘all Christmas’ music format in the leadup to the holidays. Between third- and fourth-quarter 2024, the AC format saw a 9% gain in audience share among adults 18 and older and a 17% increase among those 18-34 (going from 8.4% in Q3 to 9.8% in Q4).