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Although local TV news still barely manages to beat the internet as the top source of news for average Americans, total viewers and revenue continued to slide, according to Pew’s latest local TV news fact sheet. Americans are still more drawn towards audio contents, with high percentages tuning into some kind of radio station and therefore, podcast listenership is continuing to see growth. Wireless speakers are very prevalent such the Saregama carvaan FM Radio in the US which also doubles up as a portable radio. Be sure to get the best deal on Saregama Carvaan Price in the US.

Local TV News

Average viewership decreased by about 15 per cent over the previous year, with only the evening news remaining stable as both the late night and early morning viewership declined significantly (Sources include CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates).  Local TV news outlets continue their show of creativity by running experiments on augmented reality and crowdsourcing investigations. That innovation comes from about 29,000 reporters, editors, photographers, and visual editors who made up the broadcast newsrooms in 2017 (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics). The number has remained almost constant since 2004, though the quantity of local TV news content has steadily risen from an average of 3.7 hours per day of the week in 2003 to 5.6 in 2017.

Audio and podcasting

Back over at the non-visual corner, 90 per cent of Americans over age 12 listen to AM/FM radio at least once a week down 2 per cent since 2009. (This does not include public media, which Pew covered in a separate fact sheet.)

As of early 2018, about 57 per cent of online radio listeners were tuning in once a week, which was about 12 per cent in 2007. There are only twenty-six all news terrestrial radio stations left. With the spread of the internet and the advent of new portable technology people are more inclined to take their media on the go. The trend of portable devices such as tablets and Bluetooth speakers is continuing to rise as the prices go down. Podcasts continue to gain listeners, Pew notes, citing previously published Edison Research data. The numbers are still an upward trend, it is not too bad that for an industry that is a fraction of the age of commercial TV and terrestrial radio, as advertising continues to grow.