Xperi’s DTS AutoStage: Major Advancement In AM/FM Radio Ratings With Daily In-Car Audience Measurement From 7 Million Vehicles
Exciting news for small market broadcasters! Xperi’s DTS AutoStage is now reporting in-car AM/FM radio audiences in over 300 local U.S. markets from 7 million vehicles. In a first for the radio industry, the new data includes overnight ratings in all 300 markets.
In-car AM/FM radio listening represents the largest exposure to Americans
Edison’s “Share of Ear” report reveals AM/FM radio has a stunning 85% share of in-car ad-supported time spent. Over half of time spent with AM/FM radio occurs in the car.
The younger the demo, the greater the share of in-car listening. Among 18-34s, 63% of all radio time spent listening occurs in the car.
There are three things radio stations need to provide to show up in Xperi’s DTS AutoStage audience rankings: Most important? Providing DTS with “now playing” metadata from your station playout system
- Static data: Staiton call letters, logo, station nickname, programming format, slogan, etc.
- Streaming URL: When station over-the-air signal fades, the stream transitions in
- Live data from station’s programming system: Text meta data like song title and artist, promo copy, name of advertiers from ads running, DJ name and photo
DTS AutoStage audience metrics will be familiar to broadcasters
- Time spent listening: The average number of tuning minutes per vehicle turned to an AM/FM radio station. 30 seconds is the minimum listening needed to generate a minute of audience credit.
- Share: A station’s total minutes listened divided by total minutes spent by all vehicles to AM/FM radio in a market.
- Cume: The % of vehicles that listened at least once to a station.
DTS AutoStage AM/FM radio listening samples sizes are massive
The smallest DTS AutoStage market has a monthly sample size of over 1,000 vehicles.
DTS sample sizes are constantly growing; In-tabs are up ~2X over the past year
This sampling of DTS AutoStage markets reveals vehicular in-tabs are surging. Over the last year, the average DTS market has seen its sample nearly double. The smaller the market, the greater the sample size growth.
A tour of the DTS AutoStage dashboard:
- Market page: This depicts all the markets your owned radio stations appear in. There will be adjacent markets that your owned stations appear in.
- Market statistics: Daily or weekly trends for your stations for share, cume, and time spent listening.
- Ranking positions: This summary report details all the markets your station shows up in. Metrics depicted for your station include share, cume rating, and time spent in each market.
- Daypart activity: This is an hourly or quarter-hour visual depicting listening occasions for your station throughout the day.
- Listening heatmap: Auto dealers love this. This map depicts the location of your station listening across the market. Colors indicate the intensity of the geographic patterns of your station’s listening audience. This is the first time in the history of AM/FM radio that radio listening is visually represented where it actually occurs.
- Music charts: This shows the songs with the greatest exposure to your station’s in-car audience.
- Station editing: This is where you update the crucial metadata about your stations. There is also a “now playing” visual that shows what in-car listeners see at that moment on their vehicle radio dashboard.
Key takeaways:
- AM/FM radio’s “big data” moment has arrived with massive sample sizes that grow each month: TV has long had cable set top data and smart TV data to generate large samples of tuning data. It’s now radio’s turn! Just like cable set top data, there are no demographics but all markets have large samples. Overall, sample sizes are 5-10X bigger than current ratings samples.
- Overnight ratings in over 304 markets: In an industry first, every market now has audience shares from See your station’s daily audience trends refreshed each day.
- Large samples mean stable listening trends: In all sized markets and for all sized stations, daily share trends are stable and consistent.
- AM/FM radio now has modern, cutting edge, timely measurement, which does not rely on a consumer’s memory or require a consumer to do something (like wear a gizmo).
To learn more, visit the RAB Resource Center or email Kevin.greenwald@xperi.com.