With a quarter of the year now in the books, Nielsen has sent out an update of radio listening patterns compared to previous years. Nielsen says News/Talk is still holding strong, and non-commercial stations are doing very well. And what about Country, Hot AC, and Urban?
Nielsen says in March 10.2% of the radio listening audience (6+) listened to News/Talk, down 10.5% in February. Nielsen added that, while commercial stations have a significantly larger share of the overall audience, non-commercial stations are growing at a faster clip and all-News stations have not been able to keep pace with the growth that News/Talk has seen over the past year.
Other data from the Nielsen report:
– Country remains at its lowest point for March millennial-listening share in five years, despite the fact that the format has grown its share in every month this year, and jumped 8.0% to 8.4% from February to March.
– Hot Adult Contemporary is another format that’s seen explosive growth in recent years, particularly when compared with trends in 2011. However, Hot AC is currently at its lowest point with 18-to-34 year-olds since 2014. Prior to this month, the format had not been below 7% among millennials since May of 2014.
– Urban Contemporary and Rhythmic CHR share a good amount of content and audience, but they have moved in opposite directions in terms of share of audience over time. Specifically, they have not both been strong at the same time in PPM measurement. Over time, as Rhythmic CHR declined (by more than 2%), Urban Contemporary grew at a similar rate.
