Report: Radio, Traditional TV Have Biggest Audience Reach

Today, Nielsen unveiled the results of the Q1 2015 Total Audience Report at its annual client conference and global events series Consumer 360.

The latest edition of the report examines the different ways consumers are connecting with content and provides a comparable look at how devices, channels and technology platforms measure up against each other on a level playing field. The report also shares insights on how often different devices are accessed and time spent on each device.

An emphasis is placed on the importance of comparing different platforms using common metrics. The report addresses industry confusion around the common error of comparing digital video views, or uniques, with TV average minute audience.

According to Nielsen’s Total Audience Report, radio and traditional television have the largest Reach of any of the platforms that were analyzed. Specifically, radio reaches nearly 223 million listeners weekly (93% of US adults) and television reaches over 209 million viewers (87%). Among digital devices, Smartphones have the greatest weekly reach, reaching 70% of the adult U.S. Population.

“The proliferation of technological devices has allowed consumers the luxury of connecting to content in their own ways and at their own leisure. However, measuring the value of viewers of different devices—because of the differences in the nature of the platforms themselves—have not historically aligned,” says Glenn Enoch, SVP Audience Insights & Analysis, Nielsen. “In this edition of the Total Audience Report, we took a hard and impartial look at look not just on how many consumers are connecting with devices and platforms, but how often and for how long.”

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Enoch admit the report is full of caveats, reflecting the difficulty of cross-platform measurement. For example, the measurement of “smartphone video” encompasses apps specifically designed for video (like YouTube) while apps where video is not the primary focus (CNN, Weather Channel, Facebook) were not included.