That’s what Westwood One’s Pierre Bouvard concludes in his latest blog posting following a recent Nielsen customer webinar which he attended. The COVID crisis had people stuck in their homes, not driving to work, and radio listening took a hit as a result. Bouvard says things are starting to return to normal.
The webinar was to review the results of the just-released July 2020 PPM data and findings from the Spring 2020 diary markets.
The conclusion from the webinar was that national average quarter-hour AM/FM radio audiences are now 91% of prior levels. In July 2020, PPM market average quarter-hour audiences are now 88% of March 2020’s AQH. Spring diary market AQH audiences are 95% of prior audiences. So combined, total national AM/FM radio AQH is 91% of prior levels.
Bouvard writes that across the four different Nielsen markets types (Portable People Meter, continuous diary measurement markets, standard markets, and two-book average markets), U.S. AM/FM radio retained virtually all of its cume audiences from prior periods. “It is comforting that AM/FM radio retains its impressive reach given that AM/FM radio is American’s number one mass reach media and many brands use AM/FM radio to generate incremental audiences to TV.”
Read Pierre’s entire piece on the Nielsen webinar HERE.
