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Writer's pictureInside Audio Marketing

Nielsen PPM Trends Tell A Tale Of Two Formats: Contemporary Christian And Urban AC.

Three-quarters of the way through 2024, clear trends have emerged for several formats based on year-over-year and/or month-to-month share activity in four demographics, in Inside Radio’s monthly analysis of Nielsen PPM cross-market average quarter-hour share data, covering Monday to Sunday, 6am-midnight.The format scorecard continues to give contemporary Christian an A+, not only for its across-the-board steady share growth from year-to-date 2022 to that of 2024 — up as much as 30% among persons 18-34 — but for its generally consistent delivery since January. While ranked ninth among all formats in the 6+ demo, contemporary Christian has outperformed in markets such as Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Baltimore, where stations in the format have landed in the top five this year.


Urban AC has been another cross-demo success story in 2024, with steady gains January-September, leading to double-digit growth in 6+, 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54 — most notably in 18-49, where it’s up 19%. Ranked sixth in persons 6+, urban ACs have placed first or second this year in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Miami, and Baltimore.


Spoken word formats have produced two notable uptrends in 2024, specifically during Nielsen’s summer surveys. There’s news/talk, still top-rated for 6+, where major events tied to the Presidential election, wars overseas, and weather emergencies here at home drove up shares as much as 22% June-September among 18-34s, where the format ranks 11th, and 19% for 25-54, where it ranks fourth. Sports, meanwhile, saw its annual baseball/football bump from July to September, with shares up at least 20% in all four demos examined.


There are also demo-specific share lifts for hit-based formats, with CHR up since January in 18-49 and 25-54, and rhythmic CHR up since spring in 18-34 and 18-49.


While adult contemporary remains strong overall, ranked second 6+ and topping the other three demos, share delivery is down from January, or from last summer, in all demos except 18-34. That’s most notable in 6+ and 25-54, where shares January-September are off by more than a point. While AC’s share also fell during the first half of the year among 18-34, from July to September it bounced back from 7.8 to 8.9.


Country, which places third in each of these demos, seems to have hit a wall in all of them, with year-to-date shares down from 2023, and summer month shares down as well. This may be due to a stronger crop of hits last summer — several of which crossed to AC, hot AC and CHR — from acts such as Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs.

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