NIELSEN IS TRYING TO SOLVE ‘THE HEADPHONE PROBLEM’ • ROLLING DIARY TRENDS • CALLING ALL RADIO GEEKS

Image courtesy of Randy Kabitch

The image on the left shows how Nielsen currently measures headphone listening. 

It requires jerry-rigging a “tap” to find out what a person is hearing. Respondents are turned-off by the clunky setup and often don’t do it. Earbuds are about freedom of movement.

For years clients have complained that Nielsen Audio is not capturing the full listening audience because it is nearly impossible for Portable People Meter (PPM) devices trace listening to headphones. 

Now Nielsen says they are addressing the problem.

PPM devices rely on ambient sources that have imbedded “watermarks” that are used to capture listening. But if someone is listening while wearing headphones PPM devices can’t hear the code.

Headphones, earbuds, etc. are ubiquitous in the U.S. today.  It seems like every one has a pair. The popularly of listening to audio on headphones has forced Nielsen to look for possible solutions.

Inside Radio reported on Monday [link] that Nielsen is doing a survey to quantify the radio listening that with headphones, whether via “Bluetooth” or plug-in cord.l

Nielsen said in a press release that they hope to have the plan in 2020. One of the ideas being discussed is increasing the strength of the PPM devices digital tone.

The findings are important because Nielsen says folks with ear-gear most often are listening to the audio streams of a radio station.

ROLLING TRENDS FOR DIARY MARKETS

Nielsen doesn’t have to worry about headphone listening in markets that use Diary methodology. Respondents do it the old-fashioned way – they write it down.

We are working with a limited amount of Nielsen audio data. 

The only metric we see is metro average-quarter-hour share ("AQH. We have told Nielsen that we need estimated weekly listeners ("cume") is essential to our ability to tell the story.

Very few stations that bought the September book. It appears to us that fewer noncom stations in Diary markets are subscribing to the ratings

These markets are measured by Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM) and a new “book comes out 12 months are year. This requires using data from older surveys. We are now watching Rolling Trends.

CALLING RADIO GEEKS: BILL MAHER INTERVIEWS HOWARD STERN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKN4VyeApeU