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Ratings for Sirius/XM?
- Thread starter Wimmmex
- Start date
I do not believe there are any. The channels do not encode for Nielsen PPM, and any mentions in diary markets are not tabulated.
Any audience research they may have is done internally and is proprietary.
I had a copy of the (paper) "Arbitron Satellite Ratings" years ago, before the merger.
So, there was some kind of tabulation done by (at the time) Arbitron.
They calculate their ratings based on how many subscribers take surveys on what/shows channels they enjoy and twitter and instagram following of shows that have accounts I believe.
Online listening is tracked as well.
As David said, “ratings” are a wholly internal affair...
What the personalities receive for their feedback on the “ratings” is based on:
1) Surveys by listeners
2) Favorite channels on the app
3) Actual listening on the app
4) When applicable, number of subscribers to a premium service (though those days are going away)
These are the metrics by which the personalities are judged. I don’t think it’s an exact science, but it gives folks a good idea what’s going on.
What the personalities receive for their feedback on the “ratings” is based on:
1) Surveys by listeners
2) Favorite channels on the app
3) Actual listening on the app
4) When applicable, number of subscribers to a premium service (though those days are going away)
These are the metrics by which the personalities are judged. I don’t think it’s an exact science, but it gives folks a good idea what’s going on.
As I stated, I had an Arbitron "book" (paper form), that was titled: "Arbitron Satellite Radio Survey" or something like that. So, at one time, (and maybe only one time!), Arbitron published some ratings for Sirius and XM.
When I had them in my hands, there were still 2 different companies.
That leaked book caused a major stir on the two services' fan sites, XMFan (which is still around) and Sirius Backstage (defunct). Lots of people saw the numbers, which stunned many of those who thought that satellite subscribers were after niche formats -- it turned out that the top-rated station was an AC, The Blend, and stations like Deep Tracks were marginal. Anyway, that was a one-time deal. AFAIK, the leaker was never identified, at least not publicly. It could be that the whole thing was a hoax.
That's a survey, not a ratings measurement.
Sirius is apparently doing constant surveying of its subscribers via small samples of the millions of users. They tabulate them to find out which channels are getting listening and driving subscription renewal. And the "renewal" part is key. I was once asked which channel I'd miss the most if I did not have Sirius XM. They are trying to avoid churn.
They likely do not pay much attention to social media comments as they can't be stratified.
I haven't received a survey in a few years, but several I did get seemed to have elements of "push polling" to them. For instance, there was a survey asking which of SXM's talk and sports channels I listened to and the first two listed with Howard (Stern) 100 and Mad Dog Sports Radio -- not so coincidentally the channels in which SXM has invested millions of dollars. I'm sure the results reinforced the feelings of Mr. Karmazin (he was still the boss then) and Mr. Greenstein that they had made the right decisions.
I recall the same reactions....People had all this variety, yet, they listened to the same thing that they could get on regular radio!
I think much of that comes from the fact that a large number of subscribers are there for the commercial free music formats and the reliable reception over long drives or travel. Another group is there for music without the talk-intensive morning shows and weather and traffic reports they don't want and need.
Most are not there for the deep cuts. The mistaken impression that "variety" means deeper libraries has pretty much been dispelled.
Thats a good question what would you say your top 5 channels on sirius you listen to most are? Mine would probably be VSIN sports network Vivid Radio channel 415 siriusly sinatra watercolors and pop 2k.
I also enjoyed when art bell had a show Dark Matter, on Sirius XM Radio's Indie Talk Channel 104.
The problem is that with so many channels, and limited top of mind awareness of their names or branding to do a proper survey one would have to use aided recall using a channel listing which randomized the channels for each interview to avoid position bias.
My favorite channel is BBC World News, followed by Symphony Hall, Prime Country, The Highway and Y2Kountry. The rest are very secondary.
Wow you dont even like the sinatra channel.
Sinatra makes me cringe. It's just not a style of music I enjoy.
If there are no more formal arbitron/Neilsen ratings for Sirius/XM....anyone have any informal results of surveys, etc.
Other than the top-whatever music countdowns (which are somewhat arbitrary), they don't publish any results.
Thought someone here might have the "inside" scoop. ;-)
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