Nielsen: Holiday Music Drives Gains for AC Outlets

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, December 28, 2017

Nielsen Audio

The annual gains in audience listening for AC outlets across the U.S. that flipped to "all-Christmas" music are evident, as Nielsen's PPM ratings for December reveal another strong month for the format that most often switches to holiday programming at the end of the year. In fact, this year's December result (a 10.5% share of national listening among all consumers 6 and older) represents a high water mark for AC in December dating back to the beginning of PPM measurement.

What's more, these increases are being driven by a significant uptick in tune-ins during the afternoon daypart, also known as "PM Drive," or weekdays from 3-7pm local time. In other words, drive time truly drove the increases that AC stations saw this month. The chart below compares five years of data trends, by daypart, examining the average audience for AC radio stations during the bulk of the year compared to the November, December and Holiday surveys. AC audiences increase nearly 30% during PM Drive at the end of the year thanks to the all-Christmas format.