OTTAWA – As everyone knows, teenagers have dramatically reduced their radio listening over the past several years.
However, according to 2005 data released by Statistics Canada today, the drop appears to have flattened.
Among the various groups based on age and sex, teenage males aged 12 to 17 reduced their listening time the most during the past five years. In the fall of 2005, they reported listening for an average of 8.6 hours per week, down from 10.1 hours per week in 2001.
However, their listening time appears to have stabilized in the past three years as that 8.6 figure has been the same since 2003. Check out all the charts here.
Alberta teens listened to radio for 10 hours a week, the highest of any province.
Contemporary music remained the first choice of teens, whose listening time for this format was unchanged (26%) compared to 2004. As a result, the increase in the listening time for this format was wholly attributable to adults aged 18 and over.
This stability was also observed among both men and women aged 18 and over. The gap between adult and teen listening times remains very wide (adult listening is more than double teen listening), but it has stopped expanding, says the report.
The Statscan release focuses heavily on the CBC lockout in 2005 and how that negatively impacted CBC Radio listenership. It "cost Canada’s public broadcaster a large share of its listening audience," says the release.
The results show that the CBC captured a share of only 8.8% of the total audience during this period after holding steady at around 11% during the past four years.
However, the most recent 2006 radio ratings from BBM show a significant bounce-back for CBC in the first half of 2006 but not quite to the levels they were pre-lockout. Quebec CBC listening was not affected because the lockout didn’t apply there.
As for radio in general, listening remained stable in 2005 for the third straight year. Canadians on average tuned in for 19.1 hours a week last fall, over an hour below the peak of 20.5 hours in the autumn of 1999.
Residents of Prince Edward Island were the most avid listeners at 21.2 hours a week, four more hours a week than their counterparts in British Columbia, where listening is lowest.
Adult contemporary music is still the first choice of Canadians on the radio. In the fall of 2005, this station format captured one-quarter of Canadians’ listening time, followed by gold/oldies/rock (14.9%). Country music and talk radio were tied for third place at just over 10% each. CBC had held third place but dropped to fifth due to the labor problems.
The choice of station format also varied from province to province. Country music was first choice in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. In New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, adult contemporary music was number one. Talk radio stations were the most popular among listeners in Newfoundland and Labrador.
