Tampa Ratings Drama Echoes Loudly
Industry observers (and programmers in PPM markets) continue to buzz after yesterday’s surprising revelation that, for the first time ever, a radio station’s online stream was No. 1 in a key demo for Monday-Sunday 6am-midnight for the full monthly report, calling into question Nielsen Audio’s methodology. Making this situation even more puzzling, the station in question here is Beasley Spanish Contemporary WYUU-FM (92.5 Maxima)/Tampa. This aberration came to light thanks to the dogged efforts of consultant/ratings guru Randy Kabrich, who broke the story in a blog post, as he reported, “The stream of WYUU-FM was #1 Persons 18-34 in Tampa. They even beat the on-air WYUU-FM. Let that soak in. #1 Persons 18-34 for the Month of January 2017. Period. No asterisk or footnote.” He continued, “Did I forget to tell you the entire WYUU-FM stream of 2,700 AQH consisted of only two people with meters — a Hispanic female 18-24 with a 32-hour TSL and a Hispanic male 25-34 with a 20-hour TSL, for a Persons 18-34 TSL close to 29.” He adds, “The cume of the WYUU stream is roughly equal to the reported cume of the local low-power AMs with a typical 0.1 share. Think about that one.”
As Kabrich theorizes, “It appears as if the Nielsen Hispanic PPM household most likely received an Amazon Echo device over the holidays and left it streaming WYUU in their home all the time, with the younger female at home longer than the older male.” He adds, “Wouldn’t it be ironic if the extra premium Nielsen paid this ethnic household in the difficult-to-locate-and-recruit 18-34 demo was used to purchase the Amazon Echo? Does Nielsen use Amazon gift cards as incentives?” Kabrich says Tampa PPM subscribers “are outraged and are demanding that Nielsen drop the household. Will they?” he asks. “As of the just-released February Week 1, WYUU stream remains #1 Persons 18-34 with a share even HIGHER than the January monthly.”
In response to this situation, a Nielsen spokesperson told RAMP, “Nielsen has a series of rigorous compliance controls designed to ensure that PPM panelists meet eligibility criteria and their credited listening is valid. The panelists that contributed listening to WYUU-IF (WYUU-FM’s Internet Stream) in January met our compliance standards. We take the accuracy of our data seriously and will monitor the situation closely.”
