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August 2020 PPM Ratings
- Thread starter DMK
- Start date
In trying times news and comfort radio reign supreme. News, classic rock, classic hits.
And the rock stations lost listeners. They simply have higher than normal shares because they lost fewer listeners than other stations may have lost. But the shares add up to 100% always, even if listening is way off.
Ad agencies don't buy shares, they buy ratings.
While that's true that wasn't my point. Had the only all-news station in town not blown its golden opportunity to be the go-to news source for the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest in the Emerald City they would not have lost ratings. But it's par for the course at 140 4th Ave. N.
Statistically, the numbers in 12+ for the last 5 months are all the same. Every one is within the margin of error.
At the worst, AQH persons listening was off as much as 40% in some markets. Now, it's off by about 20% to 25% compared with the January-February level in an analysis I did of five of the top 10 markets.
Using one large market as an example, the January-February average of all radio's rating (not share!) was 6.2. In August, it was 4.9 for a 21% lower level now.
However, the numbers you are looking at are "shares" and not ratings. There will always be 100 shares since share is the percentage of radio listening going to each station. So if you had a 6 share before the virus and lose a third of your listening just like all the other stations, you will still have a 6 share... but of a much smaller pie.
The public release numbers are shares, not ratings. So you can not tell from them how overall listening has changed.
It's been coming back...maybe about 90% of where it was before the crash, depending on the station.
Nielsen says AQH is about 95% of March levels.
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But advertising hasn't been able to follow.
Because a lot of retail and restaurants are still limited. We still have record unemployment. Football is just starting. It could be a year to two before it recovers.
We have not seen the worst of this pandemic inspired downturns. There is a delay in how this type of event effects the economy. Plus if there is a second wave, predicted by most experts, we will not see much economic improvement in the near term. Ratings are one thing, revenue is another, and I doubt that will come back to normal anytime soon.
Yep, you're right about that. With Fall approaching, we could still see a sudden uptick in cases.
The only thing that's kept the stock markets from completely tanking, is the US Government behind the scenes has been buying bonds like crazy. That's not a sustainable methodology.
Small businesses are closing in record numbers. Those small businesses were supporting small to medium market radio and TV stations. Radio never has seen much political. TV in Battleground States are seeing political just starting to ramp up. In spite of political, the loss of regular advertisers still puts most TV finishing EOY significantly in the hole.
There's some of that, but the real driving force has been tech. If you own FAANG, you're doing very well.
And this is the first election where I've noticed FB and YT being used so much for political advertisements. It seems to be supplanting some of the other media.
And pretty consistent with what the campaigns have reported: Two thirds of their ad spend will be to social media or on-line video ads. One third to television.
It seems like the PAC money is going a similar direction, including anti-Trump Republican groups like The Lincoln Group.
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