Almost two years ago, Nielsen introduced something called the “Headphone Adjustment Factor” in an effort to better track listeners through headphones and earbuds in their PPM system.
The program hasn’t been as successful as the company had hoped, with a number of complaints that the meters weren’t adequately measuring the correct number of listeners. Nielsen has heard these complaints and has addressed the issue by adjusting upward quarter-hour estimates for encoded station streams to compensate for any listening experience that wasn’t captured by the meters. Nielsen will roll out this new update beginning with a PPM survey this month.
Nielsen’s latest adjustment comes during a time where more and more people are not just cutting the cord on their televisions, but also on their headphones. People are significantly listening to radio streams via wireless earbuds vs. traditional wired headphones.
Nielsen’s first adjustment was made in October of 2020 which was based on data from a survey of 5,000 former PPM panelists. The folks on the panel also submitted a one-day journal of their listening behavior which lead to the creation of “lift factors.” With the adjustment in October, stations noticed a 4% month-to-month in Average Hour Persons Using Measured Media (PUMM), the metric Nielsen uses to track listeners.
Another important statistic to note is the percentage of listeners to radio streams online. According to InsideRadio, the number of AM/FM radio listening 12+ that happens via online streaming currently stands at 11%, (according to Nielsen). It has since jumped up to 12% in January. In the all-important Persons 25-54 demo, the number is 12%, down from 13% in January.
“It was fairly consistent in 2021, ending the year around 11% (P12+) with seasonal expected changes,” Nielsen Audio VP of Audience Insights Jon Miller tells Inside Radio. “One factor in the January jump may have been holiday technology season and more opportunity to stream audio starting the year.”
In the short term, Nielsen will continue to rely on their headphone method but they will eventually scrape it in favor of its new ‘Nielsen One cross-media’ measurement service.
“Our plans with Nielsen One for audio are to use big data as a supplement to our panel data,” Rose explained to clients during a recent webinar about the new wearable meters. “And when we get that big data, the chances are that will become the source of listening for digital. And the need for using the adjustment factor will go away. But for at least the near-term, the headphone factor will be the method in which we adjust the audience estimates to account for that.”