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AM/FM radio still accounts for 55% of all in-car listening time, more than three times the share of streaming services, Edison Research finds.
Drivers have more audio options than ever in connected cars, but they have not abandoned the dashboard habit. Edison Research’s Q1 2026 Share of Ear study shows broadcast radio captures 55% of every minute spent listening in the car—more than half of in-vehicle audio time.
Streaming services account for 16%. Podcasts, YouTube, SiriusXM and owned audio combined still fall well short of radio’s share.
The study frames the result as current consumer behavior, not nostalgia: more choices have expanded the in-car menu, but AM/FM remains the clear leader.
Two-thirds of radio listeners say AM/FM is the easiest audio option in the car, and one in four drivers still turns it on first, new industry surveys show.
Radio’s staying power in connected vehicles is less about habit than about utility, according to Jacobs Media’s 2026 Techsurvey and a May 2026 Nielsen/iHeart in-car radio study.
Sixty-six percent of radio listeners say broadcast is the easiest thing to listen to behind the wheel. While four in 10 drivers say connecting a phone via Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay or Android Auto is the first thing they do, 25% still start with AM/FM.
Listeners are not necessarily choosing radio instead of streaming, podcasts or other digital options. They use it when it does the job better: it is immediate (no searching or downloading), local (traffic, weather, news and personalities), live, effortless (one button) and easy for everyone in the car.
That mix helps explain why broadcast remains central on the modern dashboard. Consumers appear less loyal to a particular technology than to experiences that work with little friction.
According to Katz, Connected-car technology has not forced an either/or choice between broadcast and digital audio. It has created an ecosystem in which each option serves a different need. The implication for automakers, the analysis argues, is that innovation need not mean subtraction: the most useful dashboard keeps the simple, immediate choice drivers already use while adding the options they also want.