I’ve written about how audience measurement is evolving in other countries. Closer to home, our Canadian friends have made a major change in how listening is measured that will take two columns to explain. Stick around, because this could be the future for the US.
In 2016, Canada legalized assisted dying. For someone to consider taking that step, among other rules, the individual must:
- Have a serious and irremediable (untreatable) illness, disease, or disability
- Be in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability
Who Is Numeris?
The Canadian rating service, Numeris (accent on the second syllable), is the largest entity measuring radio and audio in the country. Numeris management and its stakeholders felt that the audio/radio diary met the conditions listed above. As a result, the Canadian radio diary was allowed to die a dignified death after the spring 2026 survey.
The first thing a US reader needs to understand is that Numeris is a Joint Industry Committee, or JIC (pronounced “jick”). It’s a nonprofit organization whose members include broadcasters, agencies, and advertisers. The organization traces its history to 1944, and some of us who have been around a while remember it as BBM. Numeris measures both audio and video.
The new system that replaces the diary, called Radio Local+, is the first in a three-phased audio strategy plan. I’ll review it with the help of Dr. Derrick Gray, Numeris’ chief research and operations officer. I’m sure many of you would have enjoyed eavesdropping on our Zoom. Two guys who can put “Doctor” in front of their names are talking nuts and bolts of audio audience measurement. Howard Stern? Elvis Duran? Bobby Bones? Delilah? Nah, Derrick and Ed talking ratings. Now that’s entertainment!
How Canada Measures Audio Today
Numeris currently measures audio consumption using two different methodologies. It uses PPM and was the first non-US organization to sign up. The meter has been used for years in the five largest Canadian markets, although Numeris will tell you it’s actually six. Montreal receives two reports, one Anglophone and one Francophone, counting as two. The other PPM markets are Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver. One notable difference with PPM measurement in Canada is the use of average minute audience rather than average quarter hour. That has been the standard since PPM was introduced as currency.
But PPM didn’t make sense financially in smaller Canadian markets, which remained reliant on a diary-based system. As listening expanded across broadcast and streaming, platforms, and devices, Numeris and its stakeholders recognized that the industry required a system that more accurately reflects how Canadians engage with radio today, while reducing volatility and improving consistency across markets. Beyond that, cost reduction mattered greatly.
Here are the three planned phases:
- Stabilizing measurement
- Moving to average minute audience, merging radio estimates across multiple methodologies under a single database, and expanding the number of measured markets
- Developing provincial and national audio estimates
Why Canada Made the Change
Let’s use this week to understand the motivation behind the changes to local radio measurement in Canada. Next week, I’ll discuss the methodology.
It will come as no surprise to US radio broadcasters that a major goal for Numeris was improving stability. Wild shifts in estimates happen with regularity in both countries, more so today as there are fewer heavy listeners. One or two unusual diaries can move estimates drastically. As Derrick put it, “(the Canadian radio industry) needed something that can grow with them and move forward. Audio listening and streaming is one of those things, similar to set-top box data with video, that gives you that stability, that big data, that census approach.”
Further, costs were increasing. Much like here, diary response rates were declining. The more households you must contact, the greater the expense, not to mention the loss of survey quality. COVID added even more pressure to response rates.
At the same time, commercial radio in Canada has experienced revenue declines, just like US commercial radio. According to a Statistics Canada item released on my birthday this year (August 19), the industry had 2025 revenues of C$1.5 billion and a net profit of C$28 million. For “private stations” (leaving out CBC/SRC Radio and other public broadcasters that accept advertising), total revenue was just C$1.0 billion, down 36% from 2013, not accounting for inflation. Costs had to be reduced, including for ratings.
What Radio Local+ Changes
Numeris introduced an online diary in 2016 and used both paper and online until retiring the paper diary during COVID. The online radio diary, referred to colloquially as “ORD” (not O’Hare Airport in Chicago), became Numeris’ only diary for collecting listening information.
Through spring 2026, Numeris measured its 22 diary markets with ORD. Each market received two reports a year using the traditional average quarter-hour metric. However, another difference from the US was the use of a 48-week average rather than a standalone 12-week report. Radio Local+ offers 13-week reports, the first of which will be delivered in December.
Radio Local+ is part of Phase 1 of the strategy and is a new hybrid audience measurement system that combines survey and panel data with streaming information from participating broadcasters and advanced modelling. In practical terms, it is designed to solve several of the diary’s biggest problems. It reduces reliance on individual diary responses, which can cause significant shifts in estimates, and adds streaming information to capture listening that the diary system was not built to measure consistently. Survey and panel data maintain the connection to individuals, while advanced modelling combines the inputs into more stable audience estimates.
Another part of Phase 1 is determining ways to stabilize PPM estimates. Phase 2 includes moving to average minute audience as well as impressions in non-PPM markets, something the old system could not accommodate. Phase 3 will see Numeris develop provincial and national audio estimates. Here, we have Nielsen’s Nationwide for national estimates, but Canada has no equivalent. The assumption is that national data will highlight radio’s massive audience and reach.
What Comes Next
Of course, not everyone is happy with the changes. But as Derrick noted, based on feedback from Numeris’ Audio Executive and Research Advisory Committees, “The general consensus is this is not perfect, but it’s far better than what we currently have.”
And, as with any major measurement evolution, the first release of Radio Local+ is not intended to be the final word. Numeris expects to refine the model over time, using industry feedback and ongoing validation to continue improving the service as audio consumption evolves.
It’s a bold move on the part of Canadian radio and audio. The next step is to examine the nuts and bolts.
Let’s meet again next week.
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