Thursday, April 16, 2020

NIELSEN: IN MARCH PPM RATINGS NEWS IS UP, MUSIC IS DOWN


REMINDER: Results of the PRPD/Jacobs Media Covid-19 survey is Thursday (4-16) at 2:00pm ET. The webinar is free and is open to all public media folks.  

To register for the webinar click here.

The webinar will present top-line results about the changes in lifestyle and media consumption by over 16,000 public radio listeners of 47 public radio stations. The survey was taken conducted March 30th - April 3rd.

THE AUDIENCE IS A MOVING TARGET

When you look at the PPM ratings below, keep in mind that the seriousness of the pandemic evolved over time. The March survey period was February 27 through March 25, 2020. The chart on the right shows the increase of people infected with the virus.

Consider these headlines during Nielsen’s March survey period:

• On February 29, the first death from coronavirus in the U.S. was reported at Evergreen Health Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington.

• On March 2, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the state's first reported case of COVID-19.

• On March 16, San Francisco was the first to issue a shelter at home mandate.

• On March 17, March 17 5,145 people in the United States had been infected and there were at least 91deaths.

• As of Wednesday (4-15), when this post was written, there have been over 600,000 people infected and almost 30,000 deaths.

NIELSEN MARCH PPM RATINGS: NYC, LA, CHICAGO & SAN FRANCISCO

Nielsen’s March Noncom PPM ratings for the nation’s four largest metro areas can be summed up this way: News is up and music is down. But there are exceptions.

Overall, the numbers appear to be very volatile. Things evolved day-by-day during the survey.

• Almost all of the major full-time NPR News/Talk stations in the top four markets gained AQH share in March compared to February. The only one of the six to loose share was KPCC.

• Three of the four Classical music stations were down in both AQH share and estimated weekly listeners.

• The PPM Ratings for other music formats had no clear pattern.

The best performer in the March PPM ratings, in the top four markets, was WBEZ in Chicago,

WBEZ’s AQH share in March went up almost a full rating point compared to February.   

WBEZ'S estimated weekly listeners also went up. 

Perhaps this is because of WBEZ's recent hires.

 

Here are the March charts.


















1 comment:

  1. FYI Ken, Nielsen themselves is saying "don't read too much into this book" because the COVID19 crisis ramped up in the third, and especially fourth, week of the Book. From: https://radioinsight.com/headlines/186171/march-2020-2-27-3-25-nielsen-audio-ppm-ratings-day-1-and-then-covid-happened/

    "This was a monthly unlike any other. The first half of the monthly was fairly normal, with the affects of the coronavirus beginning to be felt in week three and especially in week four as shutdowns of businesses went into effect. To the point where Nielsen sent a letter to all subscribers telling them, “Given the anomalous nature of audience behavior during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, it is Nielsen’s position that future buying and planning decisions for periods that fall outside the COVID-19 crisis should not be made using COVID-19 impacted audience estimates.”"

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