Christian, News/Talk Thrives After Nielsen’s 3-Minute Qualifier Change.

Since Nielsen’s shift from a five- to a three-minute qualifier for quarter-hour credit in January’s PPM survey, two formats, contemporary Christian and news/talk, stand out when it comes to across-the-board demographic growth.

Inside Radio’s analysis of cross-market average quarter-hour share data in Nielsen’s 48 PPM markets, covering Monday-Sunday 6am-midnight during the January and February surveys (including activity from Jan. 9-March 5) shows news/talk, regularly top-ranked among persons 6+, up by 0.3 from January-February 2024 in that demo as well as with persons 18-34, while up 0.7 among both 18-49s (+14%) and 25-54s (+12%).

While news/talk’s share lifts, which include a 7% increase over the past six months for 6+, may be primarily due to an increase in daily news content since the start of President Trump’s second term, contemporary Christian continues an ongoing uptrend. Since January-February 2022 it’s been up steadily year-over-year in every key demo examined, with 30%, 46%, 32% and 32% boosts for 6+, 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, respectively.

Year-over-year increases for contemporary Christian are also mostly in the double-digits, up 11%, 9%, 12% and 12% for those four demos. Even past-six-month growth for the format has been strong, up 18%, 29%, 12% and 12%, for those same demos.

The only other format with across-the-board increases is modern/alternative rock, also steadily up since January-February 2022 in 6+ with a 26% rise, with past-six-months increases (15%, 19%, 10% and 10%) in all key demos.

Specific to the two surveys since Nielsen’s qualifier change, news/talk and contemporary Christian aside, CHR and hot AC are the only two other formats up significantly year-over-year. CHR’s up 6% for 18-34s and 5% among 25-54s, while hot AC gains 8% 6+, 6% 18-49, and 8% 25-54.

Other formats with growth stories, although without significant gains since January-February 2024, include urban AC (up since January-February 2023 in 6+, 18-34 and 18-49), and adult hits (up since January-February 2022 6+ and 25-54). While classic hits is mostly in a holding pattern, it’s seeing impressive growth among 18-34, where it’s up 13% year-over-year and 8% over the past six Nielsen surveys.

As to formats trending in the opposite direction year-over-year, adult contemporary, which had been in growth mode January-February 2022-to-2024, has reversed course since the first two surveys of 2024, down 15%, 6%, 11% and 13% for 6+, 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54. Country, which has been trending down since January-February 2023, is off 6%, 5% and 7% in 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54.

While sports, which is flat or down year-over-year, is the only format displaying a significant downtrend from the January to February survey in every demo, recent Nielsen history shows that’s an annual occurrence. This year, the 6+ share dropped 17%, compared to 22%, 16% and 18% for January-February 2022, 2023, and 2024.