When TV first started, it took many cues (as well as brands and personalities) from radio. Today, as radio faces a pivotal time, we can take lessons from TV, particularly when it comes to dealing with the new realities of new audience measurement technology.
Just as PPM is in the process of changing radio, the Local People Meter or LPM has changed TV. Unlike PPM, which measures all aspects of ratings, LPM has augmented the longtime Nielsen home metering technology to provide demographic information which had previously been measured via diaries.
Just like in radio, TV broadcasters are finding out that what viewers watch and what diary households SAID they watched can be two different things. This has been especially apparent in local news viewership, which has plunged since the advent of the LPM because, often, people would write in diaries that they watched “the news” when they really didn’t.
Another similarity is that new ratings technology minimizes the impact of stunting. Now, in LPM TV markets, households are measured year-around, not just in “sweeps” periods, at least at the local level. So, selling a few big, heavily promoted news stories is no longer the secret to ratings success. Similarly, in radio, you can’t win a book anymore with one big promotion. Local TV and radio ratings both have to be won by delivering on promises every day, with a product that lives up to brand promotion.
Radio does have an advantage over TV when it comes to changing with the new ratings technology – it is much more nimble. It is must easier to tweak a radio station’s format or style than it is for a TV station. Local TV is still largely tied to a network schedule developed in the 1950s. Only within its own newscasts can a TV station innovate. The rest of its product is largely tied to a network. Local radio, though, is ripe for programming innovation, with the ability to continually evolve in direct response to its audience.
For both radio and TV, it’s not enough just to be local anymore. There is simply too much competition for both media, online and elsewhere. But with changes in broadcasting, radio is well positioned to respond and to be resilient.