On average, Radio holds more than 92% of its lead-in audience during commercial breaks:
One-Minute Pod - 99.6%
Two-Minute Pod - 94.7%
Three-Minute Pod - 88.5%
Four-Minute Pod - 87.7%
Five-Minute Pod - 89.4%
Six-Minute Pod - 87.9%
Radio audience levels do not drop significantly between the third, fourth, fifth and sixth minutes of a commercial break.
Commercial breaks during morning drive hold more than 94% of the lead-in audience.
Morning drive holds more than 94% of the lead-in audience during breaks ranging from one to six minutes.
Midday is the next "best" daypart for retention of lead-in audience during commercial breaks. For shorter pods of one to two minutes, midday commercial breaks retain 95% of the lead-in audience.
Implications for Advertisers:
Advertisers should recognize that Radio is a commercial-friendly medium.
Advertisers should not be overly concerned about their position in Radio commercial breaks.
Advertisers should not be particularly concerned about commercials running in afternoon drive and weekends since commercial audience levels in those times are also high.
The high level of audience retention during commercial breaks in the morning-drive daypart suggests greater listener engagement in the morning and substantiates the value of morning-drive-inventory.
Source: What Happens When the Spots Come On
Radio Today combines Scarborough consumer data with Arbitron audience data.
