Too many commercials, radio listeners say

24/08/2012 - 12:43 | 7 Replies More

A new Ofcom report reveals the thoughts of listeners to commercial radio.

More than one in five say there’s more advertising and programme sponsorships on air than they’re happy with, with a further 59% saying they wouldn’t want any more than there is already.

The findings are part of Ofcom’s annual survey of consumer attitudes towards broadcasting, which charts the changing public opinion towards media issues.

The research also finds that for local news, a small majority say that TV is their main source (53%), with 15% selecting newspapers, 10% radio and 6% the internet. Commercial radio listeners are more likely than BBC radio listeners to say they relied on the radio for coverage of local news (38% vs 31%), travel/weather (41% vs 34%), information about events/the community (32% vs 24%), and emergencies such as snow and floods (35% vs 39%).

Radio is seen as the second most impartial news source (52%), down from 57% in 2010, and behind television (59%). Ofcom suggests that the decrease could be related to a general decline in trust in the media following the past year’s events, with TV and radio taking the brunt of the decline, as other media were already likely to be seen as less impartial.

Regional differences are also highlighted by the report, with radio remaining particularly strong in Northern Ireland, where one-fifth (21%) of respondents say that their main media source for their nation’s news is radio, compared to 8% of respondents from Wales and 5% of respondents from Scotland.

Meanwhile, just 2% of radio listeners said they’d heard something on the radio that they found offensive in the last 12 months.


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Category: Industry News

  • Drew White

    This page is brought to you by Broadcast Bionics, Sonifex, Freenotes, RCS, Audio Always and Arqiva…

    but at least I can see the text of this article as the central feature and read it without feeling too distracted. Some of these ads are better than others, but none have made me want to close the page.

    Some radio ads, however… hmm.

    Badly placed ad breaks, shouty messages, single copy on high-rotation ads, ads which remain the same for months, ads which end with a huge speed-read of terms to justify the calm supposedly ‘no hidden extras’ message before it, irritating voice & music choices – there are so many reasons ads can be annoying rather than part of the entertainment.

  • Radio Geordie

    Would the drop in radio news be down to the ‘news hubs’ which are generally based nowhere near the area the licence serves?
    (Like Global’s London-base in off-peak hours or GMG’s Manchester hub).

  • Guest

    There are loads of internet radio stations with no commercials at all. Ours included! Internet radio may one day be the way forward for a true alternative

  • Guest

    There are loads of internet radio stations that play all sorts of music and other programmes with no commercials at all (ours included!!). We at Golden Oldies Plymouth Radio feel that internet radio could be the way forward as a true alternative.

    • Jack

      The internet has no radio stations, only services. Radio stations transmit thru the air… and though there are a few listenable services on the ‘net, many are wannabes and hobbyists masquerading as broadcasters.

    • http://www.facebook.com/joe.cappleman Joe Cappleman

      Nice plug. :P

  • Jonathan

    So only 20% feel there are too many commercials? That means 80% of the people who responded don’t feel that way, the vast majority of listeners. Poor use of statistics.

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