The pandemic put pressure on media budgets and changed users’ listening behaviors, forcing advertisers to restructure their audio strategies.

Our forecast includes terrestrial AM/FM radio and satellite radio, local and national broadcast of traditional on-air radio stations, and satellite radio services that are delivered over the air. It excludes digital audio. Despite its current advertising struggles, traditional radio still has reach. Terrestrial radio reached 91% of US adults on a weekly basis in Q1 2020, according to Nielsen.

eMarketer principal analyst Victoria Petrock and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Peter Vahle discuss the wonderful world of voice: podcasts, radio and voice ads. They then talk about Google holding on to data, a new bill to ban facial recognition technology and a bunch of robots that can cook and serve food.

A similar pattern was evident among radio listeners. As last year, nine in 10 internet users ages 55 to 64 polled in H1 2020 had listened to live radio in the prior month. But more than 82% of respondents 16 to 34 also tuned in to radio broadcasts. And the 35-to-44 age bracket registered the greatest penetration at 91.7%.

More people were listening to radio as well; 49.5% of internet users had tuned in to broadcast radio in the previous month, compared with 44.3% last year. Yet the 34 minutes spent with live radio per day was only about half the time spent with digital audio. More than 61% of internet users had read a print newspaper in the prior month, and 57.7% had read a print magazine.

The reach of broadcast radio remained greater in Poland than in most other countries, at 85.1%. The share of respondents accessing music or other audio content on digital platforms rose to 62.9%, but live radio occupied almost twice as much time as music streaming on a typical day.

Digital radio spending has declined during the pandemic, which is in line with reduced advertiser demand. We do, however, expect growth to rebound by 26.8% next year.

Broadcast radio continues to do well in Saudi Arabia. The share of internet users tuning in to live radio programming in the previous month rose from 51.5% in Q1 2019 to 55.8% in Q1 2020, per GlobalWebIndex/Publicis Media. Yet digital audio is on the rise as well.

By contrast, nearly 78% had tuned in to broadcast radio in the previous month. The 1:03 spent with live radio per day also surpassed the time spent with digital audio. Print newspapers are still an important medium in Israel and registered penetration of more than 65% in H1 2020. Fewer than 45% of respondents had read a print magazine, though.