Nielsen’s Rich Tunkel: mSurvey Marks ‘New Era’ In Radio Audience Measurement.

Nielsen’s official Spring 2026 launch of its mobile survey (mSurvey), announced March 4, aims to modernize radio measurement and complement its traditional diary service by allowing respondents to report listening electronically on their smartphones, expanding participation and improving accuracy in more than 150 local U.S. markets.

Nielsen Audio Managing Director Rich Tunkel has more to say about mSurvey in RAB’s latest “Radio Matters” blog. “It is the latest piece of a multi-year transformation plan designed to make our measurement more resilient and ensure the radio audience is represented more robustly,” Tunkel says, noting that its launch “didn’t happen in a vacuum. It is the culmination of five key initiatives we’ve been rolling out to modernize how we connect with people and improve the quality of the data we provide.”

Nielsen’s journey to mSurvey began with its 2024 introduction of eScreener – allowing for the collection of a household’s demographic and contact information digitally – as a result of which, Tunkel says, “we’ve found it much easier to attract those difficult-to-reach respondents who are more likely to participate in a digital survey, helping us build a more balanced sample from the start.”

Then came offering digital incentives in addition to mailing cash or checks, with online rewards respondents can choose from, including major retailers and digital payment services. “These digital rewards are particularly appealing to younger listeners,” Tunkel says. “The response has been incredible: 94% of respondents who received digital awards redeemed them when we rolled this out.”

Nielsen met their goal of reaching those younger listeners with its “targeted reselects,” where it intentionally invited households having participated in the past – specifically those with members aged 18-34 – to join a new survey week. “We saw a massive 14-point increase in 18-34 sample proportionality in just one season,” Tunkel says. “We are continuing this program to ensure these vital young listeners are fully represented in your data.”

In fall 2024, Nielsen moved to 100% address-based diary sampling to replace phone-based recruiting, which increasingly skews toward consumers age 55+. “By using physical addresses instead of phone numbers as our starting point, we can much more accurately find and include households that reflect the true makeup of a local market,” Tunkel says.

With all those initiatives in place, launching mSurvey – the digital version of the one-week diary, accessible on any mobile device – was the next step. 

“We’ve been testing, re-testing and building this for over three years to make sure it’s ready for the spotlight,” Tunkel says. “While the paper diary will remain the primary mode of collection for the majority of our respondents, mSurvey is designed to keep our measurement relevant to the way people spend their day and interact with the world around them. The mSurvey makes logging radio listening easy and intuitive for the modern consumer, leading to cleaner data and faster data collection.”

By no means is the work on mSurvey done after it gets into the field. “While mSurvey will account for approximately 10% of our total diary sample, we will continue to test and improve it with the hope to further expand it in the future,” Tunkel says. “The goal of mSurvey is to improve proportionality, particularly among younger respondents, without sacrificing the robustness of the data collected that our clients have come to expect.”

Tunkel reminds stations that “this entire transformation has been about one thing: giving you a more representative and modern look at your audience. We’ve done the heavy lifting to ensure the audio diary remains the robust, reliable currency your business depends on. Get ready for a new era of radio measurement this spring.”