Nielsen reports stability in 2nd year radio ratings

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Spring 2010 radio ratings data has been delivered to subscribers in the 51 Nielsen “sticker diary” markets. According to The Nielsen Company, the story is consistency – the second year of data produced findings consistent with what was found in Spring 2009.


Listeners age 25 to 54 continue to thrive as the “sweet spot” for radio, Nielsen said, while consumers in cell phone only (CPO) households continue to listen at a higher rate than the 12+ population, according to its analysis of the Spring 2010 ratings.

Persons age 25-54 listened to the radio an average of 24 hours and 23 minutes each week during the spring survey, 7.4% higher than the population over the age of 12. The findings are consistent with the 2009 spring ratings which found that average weekly listening within the 25-54 demographic was 7.5% higher than the 12+ population.

Additional findings from Nielsen’s analysis of radio data include:

Listening among persons age 18 to 34 remains consistent with their counterparts age 12 and over in the 51 measured markets, with average ratings for each group hovering around 16.5%

Black listeners age 12+ spent 21% more time listening to the radio each week than all persons 12+, while Hispanic listeners 12+ spent 13% more time on the radio each week.

An estimated 40% of radio listening among persons 12+ takes place in the car, while 34% takes place at home and 23% at work.

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“The remarkable consistency of Nielsen’s spring 2010 surveys indicates that there’s no bounce from last year’s results,” said Lorraine Hadfield, Nielsen’s director of global radio measurement. “Nielsen’s address-based sampling (ABS) method – which captures all listeners regardless of whether they have a landline phone, cell phone only, or no phone at all – ensures that our ratings are based on the most reliable representation of the population in the 51 local radio metros,” she added.

The survey measured radio listening in March and April among 115,672 consumers representing a population of 14 million in 51 US radio markets. Nielsen said an estimated 16.3% of households in the Spring 2010 sample are cell phone only, up 8.7% from 2009. The increase is in line with the 2009 first half vs. second half rise of 8% in CPO households nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Nielsen found that ratings for listeners from CPO households are 8.5% higher than those of the general population age 12+ in the 51 markets, and they listen 5.4% longer, on average, each week.