Is headphone and earbud listening even higher than the radio industry believes it to be? Radio executives are already concerned about being properly measured when listeners use headphones and earbuds. Now, consultant Alan Burns says, at least with women, this issue may be more serious than originally thought.
New data released (Wednesday) by Alan Burns and Associates and Strategic Solutions Research suggest that the amount of listening by women while wearing headphones may be far higher than most would have guessed.
As a result of the recent research Burns conducted with 2,000 women, 49% ages 15-54 responded they wear headphones during some of their time spent with radio. Burns says the number is higher among heavy radio listeners (56%) and at-work listeners (57%). “Those numbers are well beyond ours and most people’s expectations.”
Fifteen percent of the women surveyed said they use headphones for half or more of their radio listening. Burns says, “If that listening was not accurately measured it can have a massive impact on radio AQH.”
Burns says the bigger story may relate to ratings survey participants. One hundred and forty-two of the 2,000 women in the survey participated in a ratings survey. “The numbers escalate dramatically among women who had actually been part of a ratings sample,” said Burns. “More than four out of every 10 of them said they wear headphones or earbuds during half or more of their radio listening. That’s enormous! Imagine how incomplete measurement of that kind of listening could impact listening estimates. It’s critical that headphone listening be captured and measured fully and accurately, and we know Nielsen is working on the issue.”
