Coleman Insights revealed a study on the impact of the PPM on spoken word formats at the recent Talk Radio Seminar. Their study, “The Truth About the PPM Performances of Spoken Word Formats,” is the latest in their “Mapping the DNA of the PPM” series.
In this study, they studied the results for 88 stations in a variety of spoke word formats (All-Talk, News/Talk, All-Sports, etc.), including some public radio stations that program some music, in addition to NPR or other talk radio programming. Here are 9 key findings from that study:
Coleman Insights revealed a study on the impact of the PPM on spoken word formats at the recent Talk Radio Seminar. Their study, “The Truth About the PPM Performances of Spoken Word Formats,” is the latest in their “Mapping the DNA of the PPM” series.
In this study, they studied the results for 88 stations in a variety of spoke word formats (All-Talk, News/Talk, All-Sports, etc.), including some public radio stations that program some music, in addition to NPR or other talk radio programming. Here are 9 key findings from that study:
1. Spoken word format shares increased – Spoken word formats averaged a 12% increase in share (12+ AQH) with the conversion to the PM methodology. Similar changes were noted in various demographics: a 13% increase with P 25-54 and a 15% increase with P 35-64.
2. Cume is up too – The 12+ cume increase for talk formats was 36%. This is considerably lower than what music formats achieve. The average station (all formats combined) sees a cume increase of 50% with the PPM methodology; many music stations have seen increases of 100% or more.
3. TSL goes down – TSL drops for all formats, but spoken word formats see less of a drop in TSL than music formats.
4. Spoken word stations tend to rank lower in the PPM – Despite the higher shares, Talk stations’ 12+ rank typically dropped by one position with the change to PPM. This apparently contradictory finding is due to the fact that there is greater ratings compaction with the PPM. That is, stations of all formats tend to be bunched closer together than they are in the diary results.
5. Most of the gains come from Morning Drive – Spoken word formats gained 28% in P 25-54 AQH share in morning drive in the PPM compared with their diary performance!
6. All News and All Sports stations are driving the increase – These formats fared better than News/Talk and Public radio stations. News/Talk is virtually flat, while public stations actually drop 6%. All News and All Sports each gain more than 30%.
7. Public stations that program all news and talk perform much better than those that program a music/talk hybrid – The hybrid stations saw a 40% drop off (with P 25-54) in the PPM, compared with a 3% gain for those that were all spoken word.
8. Conservative does better than Liberal – Conservative-themed stations increased (P 25-54) by an average of 24% with the PPM, while Progressive-leaning stations went down 17%.
9. ESPN-branded sports station did better – The increases for stations that use ESPN as part of their name was larger than that of other stations. Some of these other stations may carry ESPN programming; this finding applies specifically to the name of the station.
