Archive
October 21, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Your latest Nielsen survey is released, and the first thing you do is check your station’s performance. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a PPM or a diary market; how your station fared is the most important element of the Nielsen survey.
However, many broadcasters do not take the time to examine how well Nielsen conducted their survey. When they do, it is usually only following a down book, and they’re looking for a reason to blame Nielsen. In other words – shoot the messenger.
Regardless of your station’s results in any survey, every broadcaster – whether they are in sales, programming, or management – should be aware of how well Nielsen performed.
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October 14, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
When PPM was new to all of us, a lot of us focused on clocks. Proper placement of commercial breaks were analyzed to maximize every quarter-hour.
Being off by just a few minutes can have a detrimental impact on your ratings, and therefore your bonus.
So what do you do?
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October 7, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
One measure of radio’s long-term health is listening levels. On an AQH basis, how many people are tuning to radio? This can outline who is using radio and how overall listening is shifting. Previous blogs have implored radio programming and salespeople to pay attention to this important measure for their market and constantly track it.
While local market PURS (for diary markets) or PUMMs (for PPM markets) are an important measure, they are also valuable to look at nationally. In other words, what is going on with radio listening around the country?
Here the news is good…
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September 30, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
There was a time when radio stations spent a good number of resources to get to know their listeners. Whether it was auditorium tests, focus groups, or perceptual studies, they gathered important information about their likes and dislikes. More importantly, they learned how these folks felt about their station – and about the competition.
Over the past few years, these important information-gathering activities have become less common, especially in medium to small markets. At the same time, people’s audio options have exploded. The consumer has more choices, and we know less about them. This could be harmful to your station’s long-term success.
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September 23, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Westwood One recently released a study about radio listening to NFL games. The gist is that those who listen to the NFL on the radio are more engaged than those who just watch the games on television. The study talks – in great detail – about the quality of the audience.
We work with a number of sports stations across the country, and we can state that there is also a vast quantity of people who tune to NFL – and college – football games on the radio.
This may seem counterintuitive….
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September 14, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
The number of natural disasters – fires, floods, hurricanes – that have recently hit the country is mind-numbing. Tens of millions of lives have been turned upside down as a result of these events. Right when residents need news and information, their electricity is out, and internet access is non-existent.
Consider this:
When power is down, people can’t turn to TV to receive important notices.
Downed cell towers can prevent text alerts.
Both of these things affect internet access.
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September 9, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
The best way to get great ratings is to create great radio. Great radio has the ability to attract a large audience, and cume can cure many ills – especially the wobbles that come in the ratings.
That’s programming on the macro level. On the micro level, there is the Nielsen PPM panel. Any information you can garner on how it is constructed from a proportionality perspective is useful knowledge.
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August 26, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
Events and appearances have always been a way for radio stations to separate themselves from the competition. Because of COVID, they suddenly stopped.
Simply put: THEY’RE BACK!
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August 19, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
For the past 30 years, Research Director, Inc. has helped radio stations maximize the value of their investment in ratings research. For much of that time it was Arbitron data and now it’s Nielsen. We also utilize qualitative research like Scarborough and The Media Audit.
This research is invaluable, but many salespeople become overly reliant on the Nielsen data. This is especially true for Nielsen subscribers that have a strong ratings position. Beware: those that live by the numbers, die by the numbers.
If you are overly dependent on the ratings you are extremely vulnerable.
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August 12, 2021
Filed Under: Hot Topics
The recent announcement by Nielsen that the company will deploy wearable technology for PPM data collection is a welcome bit of good news. The original PPM technology has been around for decades and has clearly been lapped by not only the advancement of digital tech but by the habits of the users.
It would be easy to say “well it’s about time,” but that would be an overly cynical take. We applaud Nielsen for proceeding with caution as they roll out these new versions of the meter.
As such, we are also impatient. At the time of this writing we know that there will be a total of 3,000 new wearables in the field this fall, 1,000 of which will be new panelists. We also know we won’t know how this new system impacts ratings until the second quarter of 2022.
This gives us plenty of time for speculation and to ask a bunch of questions. And we have answers from a Nielsen spokesperson.
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Your latest Nielsen survey is released, and the first thing you do is check your station’s performance. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a PPM or a diary market; how your station fared is the most important element of the Nielsen survey.
