Christmas, News/Talk Formats Rule Holiday PPMs

RADIO ONLINE | Tuesday, January 31, 2017

The release of Nielsen's Holiday PPM ratings last week put a wrap on the 2016 listening year, showing the seasonal impact of the all-Christmas format and the success of the News/Talk, which had a banner year. The Holiday survey ran for five weeks (December 1 to January 4) in order to close a scheduling gap in the PPM survey. The bulk of holiday music listening -- which begins after Thanksgiving and peaks on Christmas -- was captured.

Adult Contemporary, which flips to the all-Christmas format more than any other format, ended the year with a 12.8% share among all listeners 6+ to lead the way among all formats. What's more, the 2016 holiday survey results are on par with nearly every other comparable survey year.

When assessing the impact of the holiday season among major music formats, it's telling to look at the long-term trends of what happens to the share of audience between November and the holiday survey. AC and Soft AC formats surged due to Christmas music, CHR/Top 40 and Regional Mexican listening declined slightly and Country is the format most affected by all-Christmas programming.

For the News/Talk format, 2016 was a banner year, as ratings were boosted by an unprecedented political season. News/Talk typically has lower listenership during the holiday survey than at other times during the year. But given the interest in the coverage leading up the U.S. presidential election, 2016 continued to buck the trend and the holiday book was one of the strongest ever recorded for News/Talk, post the historic election.