Listening location percentages for total radio average quarter hours reveal that at-home listening continues to drop and in-car listening is on the rise in Nielsen’s Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM) markets. The at-work percentage is up slightly over the past two survey months but has yet to return to its pre-pandemic level, according to Radio Research Consortium.
The April 2020 (Feb.-April) CDM report saw at home listening rising from 36.8% of total AQHs to 42.9%, while in-car listening tracked 43.3% to 38.7%, when compared to March 2020 (Jan.-March). At-home listening peaked at 49.9% in the June 2020 period (April-June), which was also the low point for in-car listening (33.1%). In the December 2020 (Oct.-Dec.) CDM report the two were nearly even with at-home listening at 39.5% and in-car listening at 41.7%.
At-work listening is at 16.5% in the December 2020 release, compared to 17.6% in the January 2020 ratings period (Nov.2019-Jan. 2020). At-work listening was lowest in June 2020 at 14.9%.
CDM markets show total week cume persons for radio in December 2020 improving by 0.4% from November 2020 (Sept.-Nov.) to 99.8% of the March (Jan.-March) 2020 level. Total AQH decreases by 0.4% from November (Sep.-Nov.) 2020, representing 98.7% of the March (Jan.-March) 2020 level.