You Should Ignore Nielsen

Yes, you should ignore Nielsen.

Not just because most of you are non-commercial stations for whom the financial supporter count is more important than ratings breakout nitty gritty.

And not just because - for those of you who are commercial or hybrid - the vast majority of your underwriting/ad business is direct, not agency based, and thus much less addicted to Nielsen's psychedelic mushroom of a headcount.

And not just because the mission of your ministry is about more than Cume and AQH.

No. You should ignore Nielsen because their "estimates" are wildly inaccurate and "loaded" to favor the largest commercial broadcast groups and their wishes for an everlasting status quo.

Consider, as only one recent example, the "3 minute rule."

That's Nielsen's new rule that counts any listener who tunes in for at least 3 minutes in a quarter hour as a listener for that entire quarter hour. Until now, listeners had to tune in for at least 5 minutes to count as a quarter hour listener (also inflated, of course). The problem was that more than 20% of listening sessions tuned in for 3 or 4 minutes and were not counted at all.

But, see, the larger problem is that to be considered a listener for 15 full minutes all you have to do is listen for 3 minutes.

So we take ever-lighter listeners and bloat their listening with ever-more false credit.

Check out Radio Ink's surprise at the incredibly predictable outcome:

And Radio Ink adds, breathlessly:

No, actually, it does no such thing (although the picture is "full" of something all right).

Rather, what it does is inflate radio's ratings by counting a 3 minute listener as a 15 minute listener, thus overstating engagement and exaggerating Time Spent Listening (TSL) and other related metrics.

So it benefits stations by inflating audience size, but doesn’t reflect actual behavior as accurately.

It is, in other words, an effort to hoodwink radio's advertisers and placate fretful broadcasters, thus undermining the value and credibility of radio ratings and transforming your Nielsen investment into a convenient lie.

If Nielsen cared about the integrity of the ratings, they could have announced:

"Hey, we know that audiences are more fragmented than ever, but we are here to provide accuracy, not hyperbole. So instead of granting a full AQH (15-minute) credit for 3 minutes of listening, we will track and report actual minutes listened, e.g. 3, 4, 6, etc. And we will aggregate those minute totals over time to report more granular time-spent metrics. After all, minute-by-minute accuracy has been our chief selling point for PPM from the beginning, right?"

But why do that when you can just make up bigger numbers?

Occasionally I have stations coming to me asking me to do studies that count their audiences (among other goals). That can be done without bias, without hyperbole, and without wishful thinking. And for a fraction of Nielsen's price.

So consider this next time the Nielsen bill comes due: What are you paying for, anyway?

Luke 16:10 - Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

Mark Ramsey Media does audience research for Christian Media - Perceptual research, digital studies, donor studies, underwriter impact studies, music studies, etc. Learn more here. Call Mark at 858-414-4191 or email markramsey@mac.com.

And if you want a strategy to solicit major donors to pay for your research, look here and download this Listener Impact Study solicitation for donors from WAKW-FM.

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