NPR Audience Hits New Peak

NPR said its weekly audience size has reached a new level.

It cites fall Arbitron numbers that found an audience of 26.5 million per week, and says the number has grown by about 1 million a year since 2000.

"This new figure represents a 4% increase vs. spring 2006, the last ratings period, and a 2% increase vs. fall 2005,” NPR stated.

“Additionally, listenership has increased for public radio stations overall around the country.” In the fall, 30.9 million weekly listeners tuned into member stations, a 2% increase over a year ago earlier.

“The stations’ performance is particularly notable in light of general declines in audience for commercial radio, television news and newspapers,” the network stated. “In particular, over the past three years, commercial news/talk radio has dropped 7% while listening to public radio news-talk stations has risen 3%.”

“Morning Edition” has 13.2 million listeners weekly, up 1% from a year earlier.

From Radio World Online.

FCC Officially Raises Station Ownership Cap to 39%

From Broadcasting & Cable:

The FCC Thursday officially rewrote its rules to raise the cap on a TV group owner's household reach to 39%. That's the total percentage of U.S. households a single TV station group owner is allowed to reach, although only half of a UHF stations audience counts toward that cap.

That move comes a little over three years after President George W. Bush signed the bill into law that changed the cap to 39%. The FCC had wanted to raise it from 35% to 45%, but Congress stepped in to split the difference.

Read the rest of the article here: FCC Raises Station Ownership Cap to 39%