Nielsen has officially announced plans to change its current five-minute collection sample to three minutes beginning during the January 2025 PPM survey.
As a result of the movie, radio stations, and advertisers will get credit for more of the audience that hears commercials and content by moving to the shorter collection qualifying period.
“Moving from a 5-minute to a 3-minute qualifier addresses industry feedback and aligns with today’s listening habits,” a letter from Nielsen to subscribers obtained by Barrett Media stated. “By shortening the minimum amount of time required to be counted in the audience, Nielsen will capture more occasions and impressions than previously reported. This alone is reason enough to make this change, but the higher audience levels will also enhance how Radio shows up in the media mix and provide more robust inputs for attribution, outcomes measurement, and market mix models.”
The change is projected to increase advertising impressions, provide more comprehensive daily cume reporting while expanding the base of panelists, and allow broadcasters to experiment with length and placement of commercial breaks for maximum tune-in.
“This enhancement to Nielsen radio currency is a direct result of the engagement and feedback we’ve received from our broadcast, agency, and advertiser clients,” the statement continued.
“We would also like to thank The Nielsen Audio Alliance, The Nielsen Audio Advisory Council, The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), the NAB Committee on Local Radio Audience Measurement (COLRAM), and the Network Radio Research Council (NRRC) whose guidance and close collaboration helped identify opportunities to enhance our offering. Additionally, we are grateful to the Media Rating Council (MRC) for their input and planned audit of this new methodology prior to production.”
The organization has planned a webinar outlining the plan for the rollout of the new measurement. On Tuesday, November 19th at 3:00 PM ET. The company will provide materials to clients to help prepare for the changes in the coming days.
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