Streaming Metrics

In last month’s PubMetrics presentation, we shared our biannual update on the overall digital trends in public media. For live streaming listening, we were happy to report that we’ve continued to see encouraging growth for stations. Looking at data for 340 public radio streams, total listening hours in Q1 2018 were up 6% year-over-year. 

In an average week, 2.4 million people listen to public radio via NPR stations' live digital streams. Even though that number had been growing steadily over the years, it plateaued in 2014-2015, making us all wonder whether big growth in digital listening was only going to be about podcasts from now on.

In the fall, when we did our last semi-annual PubMetrics presentation, the news about public radio live streaming wasn't great. After years of steady growth, we saw streaming cume and total listening hours level off.

2016 looks very different. Total listening hours are growing again, up 14% year on year for Q1 when we look at a broad range of 240 station streams. Cume is up 8%. More people are listening, and listening time per session also ticked up in Q1.

Twice a year we step back and look at the overall digital trends in public media. In last year's PubMetrics presentations, the news about live streaming was mostly positive: While cume wasn't growing, our existing audience was listening more often, so listening time overall was still on the rise.

It's that time of year again, when the DS Analytics Service takes a broad view of public media and finds the big trends everyone should know about. I have good news and I have bad news: Looking across the entire system, our station streaming is growing, but our audience isn't.

Last month during our semi-annual PubMetrics presentation (video and slides are available), the most notable digital trend we shared concerned live streaming. When we look at the performance of 179 station streams across the country, we see a bit of good news and a bit of bad news.

We all know that digital listening is on the rise. But exactly how much listening is now streaming vs broadcast, and how can you track this over time for your station?

To find out, you need to compare broadcast numbers from Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) to streaming numbers from Triton Webcast Metrics. But sadly, these two sources measure things a bit differently, and there are details you need to know in order to compare them accurately.

Did you know that approximately 9% of all public radio streaming is happening using TuneIn, one of the biggest audio aggregators? And that TuneIn is seeing faster streaming growth than most public radio stations are seeing on their own websites?

These are the somewhat surprising discoveries made recently as we analyzed metrics on hundreds of public radio streams available in TuneIn.

The Era of Digital Transformation is upon us. Listening is moving online, and more and more of our audience connects with us through computers, tablets, and phones instead of radio. One of the great things about digital is that we have so much more data at our fingertips than ever before. We can measure every listening moment, every story read, every link clicked, every point of interaction.

We're excited to announce the launch of new digital metrics dashboards for stations, with critical data on your site and your streams. Station Analytics presents key metrics on your station's audience growth and engagement - plus the ability to compare your numbers to other stations like you.

NPR member stations will soon have the ability to accurately measure audiences for program streams and have the ability to monetize those streams with digital underwriting credits thanks to a just-signed deal with Ando Media. This master services agreement is designed to bring expertise and best-in-class products and services from third parties to member stations at lower cost.

Better data on stream listeners