DO COMPETING NPR NEWS BATTLES INCREASE LISTENING TO BOTH STATIONS?

There is a theory that head-to-head competition between two stations with similar programming increases overall listening, often benefiting both stations. The rationale is that competition between stations creates more and better promotion, encourages innovation and makes both stations sound better.

Analysis of trends in four markets, each with two competing NPR News stations, seems to verify this notion. We looked at trends between August and October 2015 in Boston, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Seattle/Tacoma.  All 8 stations saw gains in weekly listeners over the two month period.

In Boston, the battle between WBUR and WGBH seems to be helping both stations.  In Milwaukee WUWM and Wisconsin Public Radio’s WHAD have different approaches but both appear to have growing audiences.

Radio listening across the board in LA is strong like it always has been. The market is the national leader in in-vehicle listening. LA is bell-weather for usage of all media and old-school radio seems robust.  Both KPCC and KCRW continue to have rising listening.

Around the end of the year, KUOW will be the only NPR News station serving the Seattle/Tacoma market. As we reported Friday, KPLU will exit news and become 24/7 jazz when the consolidation with KUOW is complete. The news competition between KUOW and KPLU has benefited both stations and listeners.

In Seattle KUOW will no doubt increase its listening and weekly listeners when it is the only NPR News outlet in town.  But don’t look for KUOW to have a 6.0 AQH and 600,000 weekly cumulative listeners. There is considerable audience sharing between to two stations and it is unknown how many jazz listeners will tune over to all-news KUOW.

MY FEARLESS FORECAST FOR KUOW AFTER THE CHANGES: 4.2 AQH and 425,000 weekly cumulative listeners.

BIGGEST CHANGES ARE HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW

BOSTON

Nielsen Audio Market #10

AVERAGE QUARTER HOUR TRENDS

	FORMAT	AUGUST 2015 AQH SHARE %	OCTOBER 2015 AQH SHARE %	TWO MONTH TREND
WBUR	NPR News	3.2	3.6	+ 11%
WGBH	NPR News	2.3	2.7	+ 14%

WEEKLY CUMULATIVE LISTENERS TRENDS

	FORMAT	AUGUST 2015 WEEKLY CUME	OCTOBER 2015 WEEKLY CUME	TWO MONTH TREND
WBUR	NPR News	354,700	411,300	+ 13%
WGBH	NPR News	274,000	316,900	+ 13%

MILWAUKEE

Nielsen Audio Market #38

AVERAGE QUARTER HOUR TRENDS

	FORMAT	AUGUST 2015 AQH SHARE %	OCTOBER 2015 AQH SHARE %	TWO MONTH TREND
WHAD (WPR)	Talk	1.6	1.7	+ 5%
WUWM	NPR News	1.6	2.0	+ 20%

WEEKLY CUMULATIVE LISTENERS TRENDS

	FORMAT	AUGUST 2015 WEEKLY CUME	OCTOBER 2015 WEEKLY CUME	TWO MONTH TREND
WHAD (WPR)	Talk	67,700	68,000	+ <1%
WWUM	NPR News	83,900	86,500	+ 3%

LOS ANGELES

Nielsen Audio Market #2

AVERAGE QUARTER HOUR TRENDS

	FORMAT	AUGUST 2015 AQH SHARE %	OCTOBER 2015 AQH SHARE %	TWO MONTH TREND
KCRW	NPR News & Triple A	1.6	1.9	+ 15%
KPCC	NPR News	1.9	2.2	+ 13%

WEEKLY CUMULATIVE LISTENERS TRENDS

	FORMAT	AUGUST 2015 WEEKLY CUME	OCTOBER 2015 WEEKLY CUME	TWO MONTH TREND
KCRW	NPR News & Triple A	543,000	627,500	+ 13%
KPCC	NPR News	687,900	724,700	+ 5%

SEATTLE

Nielsen Audio Market #13

AVERAGE QUARTER HOUR TRENDS

	FORMAT	AUGUST 2015 AQH SHARE %	OCTOBER 2015 AQH SHARE %	TWO MONTH TREND
KPLU	NPR News & Jazz	2.3	2.5	+ 8%
KUOW	NPR News	3.7	3.4	- 8%

WEEKLY CUMULATIVE LISTENERS TRENDS

	FORMAT	AUGUST 2015 WEEKLY CUME	OCTOBER 2015 WEEKLY CUME	TWO MONTH TREND
KPLU	NPR News & Jazz	298,600	309,000	+ 3%
KUOW	NPR News	288,600	320,000	+ 9%

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