The latest findings from Nielsen’s Q1 2016 Total Audience Report include some encouraging data pointing to increased usage of media by American consumers.  For us, one of the other key takeaways is something that we often cite in our consulting: “When people have too much to choose from they get paralyzed and can't make a decision.” 

In turn, becoming famous for creating and curating content that is as personalized as possible continues to be increasingly important.  In Europe, many successful media groups like NRJ in France (http://www.nrj.fr/webradios), Sky Radio in The Netherlands (http://www.skyradio.nl/), and Karnaval Media in Turkey (http://karnaval.com/radyolar) have embraced this trend by launching a plethora of web radios.  Here, in the US, there’s an extremely diverse set of offerings on the iHeart platform (http://www.iheart.com/genre/), and satellite operators like Sirius XM are constantly diversifying their programming lineup (https://www.siriusxm.com/channellineup/), including the recently-relaunched, just in time for summer, Yacht Rock (http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/10/12/how-yacht-rock-ended-up-on-sirius-xm/). 

Overall, as the Katz article highlights, we are seeing more and more “digital-only stations dedicated to a specific interest—all of which can lead to more engaged audiences.” 

It’s a worthwhile read: http://www.insideradio.com/nielsen-audience-report-three-strategies-for-radio/article_b42fe1f4-3e92-11e6-bc00-33e79e3b0e3b.html

The full report can be found here: https://www.dslreports.com/r0/download/2274798~635f2275e9761163162984a1c5956829/total-audience-report-q1-2016.pdf