Nielsen is out with a new report that says 97% of the Hispanic population tunes into radio every week. And, the ratings firm says that audience has grown 11%, from 36.5 million to 40.4 million. “This increase in radio listening likely reflects the overall increase in Hispanic consumers in the U.S. In the last 15 years, the Hispanic population has more than doubled, and growth shouldn’t stop any time soon. In the next five years, Hispanics are projected to account for 53% of the U.S. population growth.
Nielsen says young Hispanics are listening in different ways than their older counterparts. “Radio reaches almost 15 million Hispanic Millennials, significantly more than just 6.3 million of their Boomer counterparts. However, older Latinos listen longer—by more than three minutes each week. Spanish-dominant radio listeners spend the most time tuning in among all U.S. adults 18-49. These super listeners spent 13 hours and 12 minutes listening a week in 2015, compared with 11 hours and 48 minutes for English-dominant listeners.”
Nielsen says the share of Hispanic listeners 18-49 tuning in to Mexican Regional has decreased, while Pop CHR and Hot AC have grown in popularity with this demographic. And Latin music artists like Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull are crossing between Spanish and English to reach these increasingly young and U.S.-born listeners.
And Nielsen says Radio reaches almost all Hispanic adults each week, but mobile usage is growing and smartphones reach 83% of the Hispanic population weekly—greater than any other multicultural segment in the U.S. With the increased popularity of smartphones among this demographic, online media consumption has also grown significantly between 2006 and 2014.
And don’t forget to join Radio Ink March 22-23 in Fort Lauderdale for the 2016 Radio Ink Hispanic Radio conference.
