Columbus, Oh – With all the recent buzz about satellite radio resulting from the defection of terrestrial radio talent, like Howard Stern, 18-34 year olds are the satellite providers #1 age group for current subscribers and also for those planning on buying in the next 6 months according to BIGresearch’s March Consumer Intentions and Actions survey of over 7,000 consumers. The satellite radio questions were developed in collaboration with MarketStar.
However, it appears that for those 35 plus, the majority say they don’t plan on buying/subscribing to satellite radio at this time. These age groups also tend to be less likely to be current subscribers.
Education about the advantages or useful outcomes of subscribing to satellite radio appear to be necessary in order to motivate the 35 plus crowd to subscribe as 22.7% of the 35-44 year olds said they didn’t know enough about the service, 24.3% of the 45-54 year olds, 2.8% of the 55-64 year olds and 42% of the 65 plus said the same. “Lack of understanding of the benefits and technological anxiety are the key hurdles that the satellite radio vendors need to overcome at this stage, especially for sub-segments including older consumers,” said Ryan Brock, VP of Strategic Services with MarketStar Corporation.
“In the retail environment, this underscores the need to target these consumer segments where they are most likely to shop, with hands-on, face to face educational tools to overcome these specific objections.”
4.2% of consumers 18 plus said they currently subscribe to one of the satellite radio services and 2.5% said they are planning to within the next 6 months. An additional 16.1% said they plan to subscribe someday.
Of those people who said they plan to subscribe, 28.7% said they would subscribe to Sirius, 16.7% said XM and 54.6% were undecided about which service they would choose. XM was the #1 pick for 18-24 year olds and Sirius was #1 for all other age groups.
