• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Eastlan vs Nielsen in Top 50 Markets

davideduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
Here is a subject for discussion:

Stations in the top 50 PPM markets have definitely lessened their dependency and specialty programs and features. The reason is that such shows were designed to enhance memorability at the time that a diary keeper was filling in their listening. Specialty show names were easy to remember, and thus got heightened, mentions in the diaries.

In the PPM, there is no memory factor involved. Listening is registered based on the electronic detection of codes embedded in stations. So programs like “the top five at five“ had less value. And with staff reductions and computerization of station, logs, and formats many of those shows disappeared.

But the Eastlan readings are based on 24 hour recall, either by phone or online.

Eastlan is not yet the “gold standard“ at ad agencies, but it has been slowly achieving greater usage when buying smaller markets. The early Eastlan results in PPM markets are remarkably similar to the Nielsen showings. And the Eastlan data shows all stations, not just the subscribers. If it becomes easier or at least just as easy to use Eastlan as Nielsen and the delivery wait time is compatible than I see a chance that agencies will start looking at the new service in the larger markets.

The Eastlan system cost less to stations than the Nielsen PPM service. If group owners see Eastlan being successful, with the current down trend in Radio revenue I see major groups making the switch.

I do not know anyone in local management at a station that subscribe to Eastlan. I hope there is someone in that group who visits this for him and can give us an opinion on dealing with Eastlan and their success in using it for agency sales.
 
I do not know anyone in local management at a station that subscribe to Eastlan. I hope there is someone in that group who visits this for him and can give us an opinion on dealing with Eastlan and their success in using it for agency sales.

Here's a discussion about Eastlan in Atlanta


My take is that there is a lot of interest in finding alternatives to Nielsen. The lawsuit with Cumulus is one reason. But there are a lot of questions about Nielsen's ability to measure listening in digital platforms. As a result, iHeart and Triton have come up with another option.


HeartMedia is taking a direct run at the measurement gap between terrestrial radio and digital ad buying with AudioGraph, a targeting and attribution platform from Triton Digital that connects listener identity data to broadcast campaigns for the first time at scale.
 
Is the issue with digital that the PPM tones don't encode well in streaming audio? Or that an overwhelming majority of those listening to a stream are doing so via earbuds?
 
Is the issue with digital that the PPM tones don't encode well in streaming audio? Or that an overwhelming majority of those listening to a stream are doing so via earbuds?

It might be both. A lot of stations don't process their streams, so there could be a problem picking up the encoding. Clearly Triton sees an opening.
 
Here's another possible factor:


This sounds like they are going to suspend the diary system until just before Christmas. Lance hasn't reported on it, and I wish he would because he tends to get to the bottom of such stories.

I had a discussion about this with someone knowledgeable about the ratings process and he suggested that maybe the diary system has too low a ROI for them to continue it, and that Nielsen might well discontinue ratings outside of the PPM markets. His exact words to me were "in the big picture, we are meaningless".

I suspect that Eastlan would seize the opportunity and at least offer their service down to market #100.
 
I had a discussion about this with someone knowledgeable about the ratings process and he suggested that maybe the diary system has too low a ROI for them to continue it, and that Nielsen might well discontinue ratings outside of the PPM markets. His exact words to me were "in the big picture, we are meaningless".
I find that possible. A very significant proportion of Americans live in the top 100 markets, almost two-thirds, and I perceive that is growing (without looking at Census Bureau info to confirm).

Having spent almost my whole career working in markets 100+, the interest from national advertisers in our markets has dropped dramatically over the last 25-30 years.

And frankly, an advertiser who is used to getting daily reports on their advertising performance from Instagram probably isn't going to find two reports per year from Nielsen very satisfactory.

Townsquare is probably the most important player in this because they have a lot of scale in a lot of 100+ markets. If they drop Nielsen, or even scale back their purchases, a wholesale change becomes more likely.
 
This sounds like they are going to suspend the diary system until just before Christmas.
"accreditation hiatus" means the markets will be unaccredited by the Media Rating Council for that time, the measurement will continue. Several PPM have remained unaccredited for years without affecting their measurement.
 
"accreditation hiatus" means the markets will be unaccredited by the Media Rating Council for that time, the measurement will continue. Several PPM have remained unaccredited for years without affecting their measurement.

You've probably seen the comments in the Buffalo board from Buddy Shula complaining about the sample size there being cut in half. I'm sure that's why Nielsen wants to take a hiatus.
 


Back
Top Bottom