News/Talk scored another big month as Election Day fell in the first week of the December survey. At the same time, the yearly shifts in listener habits that we notice each year once the all-Christmas format takes hold clearly affected the results for a handful of major music formats as well.
News/Talk’s share of audience spiked around the culmination of the election season, which was expected based on everything we’ve seen so far this year leading up to November 8th. This month’s data reveals the highest shares for News/Talk since the last time an election was held. The chart below compares News/Talk results in the PPM survey month from the last two presidential elections (November in 2012 and December in 2016).
According to Nielsen, even more notable is the fact that December’s 4.7% share among Millennial listeners aged 18-34 was the highest ever recorded in PPM measurement for the format. It’s also further proof that interest in the American political process reached an all-time high for consumers of all ages in 2016. We will monitor what comes next for News/Talk into the next year as we move away from the influence of holiday programming, which will commandeer the headlines until the release of the January survey. But for a sneak peak at what may lay in store for News/Talk below we analyzed the four-month period from September to December four years ago, and now.
In the near term, radio programmers will be focused on the annual impact of holiday music on their formats and stations. With Christmas this week, spins of the classic holiday tunes are hitting a peak.
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