What Happens When The Spots Come On (2011)

Arbitron, Coleman Insights, and Media Monitors just released What Happens When The Spots Come On, an update to their 2006 study.

Here's the link: http://www.colemaninsights.com/freestudies

Findings are based on a year-long study of listening to 850+ stations in 48 markets that are measured by PPM. The three companies analyzed nearly 18 million commercial breaks with nearly 62 million minutes of advertising.

Key findings:

(1) There is hardly any attrition of listeners during the first two minutes of stop sets.
(2) For all listeners 6+, retention of lead-in audience is 93% across all lengths of stop sets.
(3) Talk formats retain listeners better than do music formats.
(4) Stations retain 90%+ audiences 25 and older through four-minute stop sets.
(5) Retention is slightly higher during morning drive and midday than during afternoons and nights.

(1) There is hardly any attrition of listeners during the first two minutes of stop sets.
(2) For all listeners 6+, retention of lead-in audience is 93% across all lengths of stop sets.
(3) Talk formats retain listeners better than do music formats.
(4) Stations retain 90%+ audiences 25 and older through four-minute stop sets.
(5) Retention is slightly higher during morning drive and midday than during afternoons and nights.

Although there are no surprises in these findings it also seems to me that some observations might have been left out:

Music listeners who have a choice of several sources tend to hit the pre-set immediately should a stop-set take place.

Stations known for long stop-sets will also be disadvantaged as listeners who are paying attention won't want to listen to 6-7 minutes of non-stop commercials.

Some stations integrate the commercials as part of the continuation of music or chatter that was going on.  As a guy who worked for Uncle Sam once told me, "Do NOT miss those ever important commercials when listening and documenting.".

Commercials have meaning - especially when you are somewhere in a cornfield on the east coast talking about a big sidewalk sale taking place in Las Vegas tomorrow.

"Music listeners who have a choice of several sources tend to hit the pre-set immediately should a stop-set take place."

Was this from the survey? I didn't pick that up anywhere. Or just speculation?

For my "appointment listening" as it has been called at R-I, when the commercials air is when I used to take care of other things so that I would not miss a thing. It does not mean the the commercials are not heard...unless you are hearing a station or program that just isn't worth the time or concern...and then it doesn't matter, because you tune around for something you like better anyway. Commercials or music don't matter.