Nielsen: Christmas Leader Stations See 72% Ratings Spike

Talk about a rewarding holiday season. For those radio stations that own the all-Christmas format in their markets, it is typical to experience a 72% audience spike in listening. InsideRadio reports that’s the word from Nielsen’s VP of Audience Insights Jon Miller, in a new episode of the company’s podcast “The Database,” focused on “Getting Into the Spirit with Holiday Media.”

As we know, by the beginning of December, around 500 radio stations across the U.S. switch to an all-Christmas music format. On TV, almost 100 million homes across the country tuned in to some kind of holiday programming last year.

“These numbers highlight the opportunities radio and TV provide for brands and advertisers to reach eager holiday shoppers,” Nielsen points out.

At radio, “the holiday format has become somewhat of a phenomenon over the past 15 or so years,” Miller says, with the majority of those 500 stations that flip to all-Christmas targeting the period just after Thanksgiving. “This is the natural transitional period and also when the audience reacts,” he says. “You’ll see a spike then when the listening really ramps up.”

Looking at data over the past decade, he adds, “There is clear movement in the audience that begins on Black Friday. Christmas is here, the Christmas mindset really begins and radio stations know that.”

This episode of The Database, a podcast from Nielsen, dives in to media around the holidays. A group of experts explore the role radio and TV play in getting us into the spirit, who’s consuming holiday programming, and the opportunities holiday programming holds for programmers—and advertisers.