The latest three-month review of how U.S. consumers spend their time listening to ad- supported audio is out, courtesy of Nielsen Audio. It’s based on data compiled by the audience measurement giant and third-party partner Edison Research.
What’s the key takeaway? Ad-supported audio represents two-thirds of total listening.
The report looks back at the third quarter of 2025, and the topline findings indicate daily audio consumption in the U.S. in Q3 2025 averaged 3 hours and 53 minutes of daily listening across both ad-supported and ad-free platforms.
This includes radio, podcasts, streaming music services and satellite radio.
But, how did AM/FM radio perform?
Within the ad supported audio universe in the third quarter of 2025, consumers spent 62% of their daily time with radio. This compares to 20% of respondents consuming podcasts, 15% spending time with streaming audio services, and a paltry 3% consuming content from SiriusXM Satellite Radio.
While the 62% is likely to elicit cheers from broadcast radio companies eager to monetize their content, younger audiences continue to elect other vehicles: Among 18-34 year-olds, radio accounted for 43% of daily ad-supported audio time. This means nearly 6 in 10 audio consumers in this cohort do not go to traditional AM/FM, for whatever reason.
Podcasts accounted for 31% of audio consumption in Q3 among adults 18-34.
In contrast, Adults 35+ spent 69% of daily ad-supported audio time listening to radio and some 16% listening to podcasts.
The Q3 report also looks once again at total audience (over-the-air and streaming) by radio format. Among those adults 18-34 who do consume radio, Adult Contemporary comes in tops, followed by Country and Pop Contemporary Hit Radio and then Hot Adult Contemporary. This suggests the current popular music content airing on these stations does not correspond to the overall tastes of the current 18-34 adult population across U.S. communities.
Meanwhile, the News/Talk format dominates among the 35+ adult, in line with historical trends for the conservative-laden spoken word stations with the strongest ratings across the nation.
