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Nielsen to cancel radio ratings in some smaller markets

davideduardo

davideduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
Here is part of the story from Inside Radio this afternoon about cuts at Nielsen due to the Coronavirus:

Nielsen will exit several smaller, underperforming markets and non-core businesses in the second half of 2020 as part of a plan to drive permanent cost savings and operational efficiencies. Nielsen operates globally and the exits are predominantly confined to its overseas markets, a company rep told Inside Radio. It’s unclear at this point how the restructuring may impact Nielsen’s U.S. radio business.


To position it for greater profitability and growth, the restructuring will reduce the measurement giant’s global workforce by about 3,500 employees and deliver roughly $250 million in annual savings.

For more information go to the Inside Radio site.

I wonder when we will know which markets will be trimmed.


 
DavidEduardo said:
Here is part of the story from Inside Radio this afternoon about cuts at Nielsen due to the Coronavirus:

Nielsen will exit several smaller, underperforming markets and non-core businesses in the second half of 2020 as part of a plan to drive permanent cost savings and operational efficiencies. Nielsen operates globally and the exits are predominantly confined to its overseas markets, a company rep told Inside Radio. It’s unclear at this point how the restructuring may impact Nielsen’s U.S. radio business.


To position it for greater profitability and growth, the restructuring will reduce the measurement giant’s global workforce by about 3,500 employees and deliver roughly $250 million in annual savings.

For more information go to the Inside Radio site.

I wonder when we will know which markets will be trimmed.


Click to expand...

And how many, if any, will be in the United States? "The exits are predominantly confined to its overseas markets" makes it sound as if economically sluggish markets in, say, Europe -- Bradford, England? Weimar, Germany? -- are more likely to be in the crosshairs than, say, Jonesboro, Arkansas, or Bangor, Maine. But who knows? Will the determining factor be the general economic health of the market or the number of stations in the market that can afford to pay Nielsen for its services?
 
Meridian Mississippi, and the Florida Keys were two examples of markets that were discontinued. When Clear Channel left those markets no one picked up the service. If none of the big players are subscribing (or considering) dropping the service, that is where you will see the cuts.

With corporate cuts continuing, the ratings service might be the next to fall in certain markets. When you're selling and representing your own agency to major national clients do you really need an expensive ratings service?

Is the ROI in under performing markets really worth the cost.
 
CTListener said:
And how many, if any, will be in the United States? "The exits are predominantly confined to its overseas markets" makes it sound as if economically sluggish markets in, say, Europe -- Bradford, England? Weimar, Germany? -- are more likely to be in the crosshairs than, say, Jonesboro, Arkansas, or Bangor, Maine. But who knows? Will the determining factor be the general economic health of the market or the number of stations in the market that can afford to pay Nielsen for its services?
Click to expand...

I don't recall Nielsen doing radio ratings outside the US. Remember, Nielsen bought Arbitron, which had no international services despite trying in several places.

I suspect that the smaller markets that don't have continuous measurement will be put to a test to determine if they are required for agency recognition or whether they are fairly useless. This is where Eastlan may step in with a simpler, more economical model.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Eastlan has some significant issues with minority measurement. In today's environment, I think that they will have to make enhancements or be subject to criticism for that issue.
Click to expand...

It's a chicken or egg thing. Enhancements cost money, so maybe adding more markets will give them more money.
 
Given Nielsen announced this morning that they're laying off 3500 staff, guess it stands to reason that cuts will be coming on the business.
 
Groove1670 said:
The question is does buyers and agencies take Eastlan ratings into consideration when placing orders?
Click to expand...

The markets that have that service are very small, and get little agency business.

The agency business that does come around is mostly smaller shops in-state or in-region or larger agencies with regional offices. There they may have clients who don't have national campaigns that fill in for the smaller markets so they have to buy local radio.

In these cases, the agency is familiar with the markets and the stations and very probably trusts the local ratings for guidance.

The Eastlan system is good. However, it is very dependent on the Internet for its process, and one wonders if there is a difference in listening between less Internet involved persons; they do not have a study online showing a comparison of those they can recruit vs. the ones they can't (doable with a different methodology to find non-participants).

However, there are unexplained discrepancies. I have seen Arbitron markets go to Eastlan in the past where the listening to Spanish language stations collapses. That may not be a problem for most subscribers, and they may have improved the process. Their website is amazingly sparse in content: the entire description of methodology is just a couple of very generalized pages.

For example, they talk about a project to improve Hispanic measurement from over a year ago, but they do not post the findings or details of how they may have implemented the results.

The whole process is similar to The Pulse or Hooper of the 50's to the 70's, but with the Internet used instead of the phone or personal visits. Those of us familiar with the excess of information from Nielsen likely view Eastlan as deficient for that reason but their clients may not feel a need.
 
Kelly A said:
Given Nielsen announced this morning that they're laying off 3500 staff, guess it stands to reason that cuts will be coming on the business.
Click to expand...

Remember that radio is a small, almost tiny part of Nielsen's operations.

From the "you'd better always double check it" Wikipedia:

"Nielsen Holdings plc (formerly known as Nielsen N.V.) is an American information, data and measurement firm. Nielsen operates in over 100 countries and employs approximately 44,000 people worldwide. "

Nielsen Buy covers consumer research in about 100 countries, ranging from the modern version of pantry checks to brand/sector specific research.

Nielsen Watch covers media usage, mostly On Line and TV, in 47 nations.

Here are the pages-long listings of all the Nielsen subsidiaries: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1019878/000119312507139947/dex21.htm

So 3,500 is not even 10% of the staff size. Eliminating some marginal markets likely would not affect the bottom line and might streamline the process in the remaining markets.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Here is part of the story from Inside Radio this afternoon about cuts at Nielsen due to the Coronavirus:

Nielsen will exit several smaller, underperforming markets and non-core businesses in the second half of 2020 as part of a plan to drive permanent cost savings and operational efficiencies. Nielsen operates globally and the exits are predominantly confined to its overseas markets, a company rep told Inside Radio. It’s unclear at this point how the restructuring may impact Nielsen’s U.S. radio business.


To position it for greater profitability and growth, the restructuring will reduce the measurement giant’s global workforce by about 3,500 employees and deliver roughly $250 million in annual savings.

For more information go to the Inside Radio site.

I wonder when we will know which markets will be trimmed.


Click to expand...

Anyone have info on if the Springfield Illinois market ratings are being cancelled?
 
Traverse City MI would benefit from losing Nielsen ratings, as the multiple ownership rule would revert to contour-based (70dBu), which might allow the big players in the market (Midwestern, MacDonald-Garber, and Black Diamond) to split up the remaining (silent) Northern Bottling and Henderson stations.
 
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