According to Nielsen, 30 million people listened to play-by-play and other coverage of NFL postseason games, from January’s Super Wild Card Weekend to the Super Bowl, carried on Westwood One. That includes 10 million, or one-third, not reached during its radio coverage of regular season games, while generating incremental reach to NFL TV coverage.
“The NFL on Westwood One is a massive reach machine, adding new and different listeners each and every week,” Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says in Westwood One’s weekly blog. Bouvard notes that adding its audio coverage to a video-only NFL media plan boosts the reach of men 18-34 by 19%, and the reach of high-income full-time-employed men 18-49 by 16%, based on the results of an NFL-fielded game day audience study.
Additionally, MRI-Simmons research cited by the blog shows that listeners to postseason NFL games on AM/FM radio have a lower median age, have a higher median household income, and are more likely to be employed full-time than postseason TV viewers. Using its 80,000-person Portable People Meter panel, Nielsen’s analysis across the 2023-24 NFL season shows that compared to the total U.S. profile, Westwood One’s NFL audience is 25% more likely to have a household income of $75,000 or more, and 28% more likely to have children at home.
Compared to postseason NFL TV viewers, according to MRI-Simmons, across eleven different measures of sports passion, the NFL postseason listening audience is +46% more sports engaged.
“This distinction has a significant impact on advertising effectiveness,” Bouvard says. “The TV and AM/FM radio NFL broadcasts have very different audience profiles, [as] the TV audience consists of casual sports fans.”
Another big difference between postseason fans tuned to radio vs. TV is their purchasing power when it comes to advertised products or services. “Whether it’s leasing a vehicle, hiring a financial advisor, buying a truck or SUV, getting a pet, or buying a major appliance, the NFL postseason AM/FM radio audience is far more likely to be in the market to make a purchase compared to the NFL postseason TV audience,” Bouvard says.
At the same time, postseason listeners have a greater likelihood of influencing others when it comes to advertised brands. “The NFL audio audience has greater savvy when it comes to products and services fueling substantial trust from others,” Bouvard notes. “Marketers who advertise in NFL play-by-play audio coverage reach a more influential consumer base, extending the reach of messaging beyond the fans who tune in.
One other reminder from the blog: postseason radio buys are just easier. “To build an NFL postseason TV plan, a media strategist needs to secure time across multiple different video platforms: Fox, CBS, NBC, Amazon Prime Video, and ESPN/ABC,” Bouvard says. “To build an audio plan for the NFL postseason, all roads lead to Westwood One, the exclusive home for coverage of all postseason games including the Super Bowl.”