Nielsen Moves to 3-Minute Qualifier for PPM Listening

Nielsen is to lower the minimum time a PPM panelist must listen to a radio station to qualify for its audience count from five minutes to three minutes within a quarter hour period, following consultation with clients and industry bodies.

The change should boost numbers credited with hearing with commercials and content, and Nielsen told subscribers in a letter quoted on www.barrettmedia.com that the move 'aligns with today's listening habits'. The firm said the new approach would 'capture more occasions and impressions than previously reported..., enhance how Radio shows up in the media mix and provide more robust inputs for attribution, outcomes measurement, and market mix models'.

Nielsen reports that some 45% of PPM all listening occasions are shorter than 5 minutes, and points out that 'an average song is around 3 minutes long'. In analysis of PPM raw data for May, the company determined that the new system would provide an average percentage lift for AQH (Average Quarter-Hour) data in the low 20s, with specific demographics in the high 20s - the latter includes younger audiences, who are known to 'use audio in shorter bursts'.

Bodies including the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) and the Media Rating Council (MRC) were involved in consultations over the new methodology, which will be used for the first time in the January 2025 PPM counts and provide 3-book average audiences from April onwards.

At the moment, the changes only apply to PPM markets, not diary markets, and only to radio, with no immediate plans to move TV ratings in a similar direction.

Web site: www.nielsen.com .