CBC Duplication Project

March 31, 2011

Prepared for:

Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

Prepared by:

Andrew Forsyth
Operations Consultant
Nielsen BDS Radio, Canada

I. Executive Summary

1. In both the Calgary and Quebec distinct songs make up approximately 80% of the universe and produce 40% of the airplay.

2. Duplicated songs make up roughly 20% of the universe and generate 60% of airplay.

3. Results for the 30 day period mirror the weekly song and spin activity in both markets.

4. Both CBC networks have the largest library and play the most distinct titles in their markets.

5. CBC Radio 2 and SRC Espace Musique outperform the market in terms of distinct title air play.

6. The CBC outlets are second only to specialty stations in terms of distinct spin airplay; Classical CJSQ in Quebec City and CJSI Christian Music in Calgary.

7. The music that is shared with other market stations common threads the most popular commercial formats.

8. In terms of exposure of shared songs CBC Radio 2 and Espace Musique air these songs less frequently than the mainstream commercial stations.

II. Objectives

9. Nielsen BDS Radio, Canada (BDS) has been commissioned by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to complete an exclusive analysis to explore music duplication of CBC services; CBC Radio 2 and Radio Canada (SRC) Espace Musique. This is accomplished through BDS monitoring of musical selections on CBC networks and commercial radio stations in Calgary and Quebec City.

10. BDS will illustrate how music from the CBC stations is played in terms of both distinct and duplicated songs and spins compared to music stations in Calgary and Quebec City.

III. Methodology

11. Looking at programming for 30 days over each of the 4 weeks in February (beginning January 31 ending March 1, 2011) from 6am to 12am, we utilized Nielsen BDS monitoring services to gather airplay data from the panel of 14 stations in Calgary and 10 stations in Quebec City. A database was compiled from these monitors and an analysis was performed to determine airplay duplication.

12. Playlists were drawn from the BDS database for the following stations:

BDS monitors 11 music stations in Calgary and 8 music stations in Quebec City.

In addition for this project BDS monitored:

• CBC 2 (102.1), CKMX –AM (1060)  Classic Country and CJSI-FM( 88.9) Christian Music in Calgary and
• Radio Canada Espace Musique (95.3) and CJSQ –FM ( 92.7) Classical in Quebec City

13. Playlists were produced for each of the time periods in 2011:

Week 1: January 31 – February 6

Week 2: February 7 - 13

Week 3: February 14 - 20

Week 4: February 21 - 27

30 days: January 31 – March 1

IV. Analysis

Calgary Market Overview

14. This study shows that unduplicated (exclusive) songs make up the bulk of the musical inventory at 81% of all songs. These songs also make up a smaller portion (41%) of the total airplay. The majority of airplay in the Calgary market is driven by 19% of the musical universe.

-   Over 30 days 81% of the songs are exclusive. These songs are unique to one station.

-   41% of all spins are generated by the exclusive songs

-   In contrast 59% of the airplay is from the 19% of the universe consisting of duplicated songs.

15. Few songs shared by many stations drive airplay:

Figure A: Exclusive and Duplicated Airplay

16. The percentage of duplicated songs that generate the most number of spins is consistent over 4 weeks:

Figure B: Four week Exclusive and Duplicated Airplay

17. In Calgary 1782 songs making up 19% of the total universe are played on at least two stations.

Figure C: Distribution Duplicated Songs and Spins

18. As songs are shared by more stations the resulting spins increase in proportion. For example the 1121 songs   played by two stations are 63% of the duplicated library delivering 37% of the spins. By contrast, the 393 songs played at three stations (65% fewer songs than played at two stations) create 5% less spins.

19. This anomaly is explained in the figure below. Generally, the more stations sharing a song the higher the average spins or rotation for the song per station.

Figure D:  Duplicated Song Rotation

Duplication by Station

20. Seven stations is the largest coalition sharing a song in Calgary. The following table shows the eight songs and the 30 day spins on these stations:

Figure E:  Songs and Spins at 7 Stations

21. Observations on the 8 songs shared by 7 stations;

-   CBC Radio 2 shares 6 songs with 6 other stations.

-   Multiple spins from “Viva La Vida” at 3 and 2 for “Every Breath You Take” over 30 days

-   Two titles “Summer of ’69” and “One Thing” are Canadian Content.

-   CJAQ and CIGY play all eight titles.

-   CFEX, CIBK and CKMP play 3 songs the fewest from this list.

-   CIGY spins these songs the most at 136 plays

-   CKMP plays these songs the least with 6 spins over 30 days.

-   All of these titles are past hits and fall under the Pop Rock or Alt Rock genres.

22. Three stations have over 80% of their repertoire from exclusive songs;

Figure F: Percentage of Exclusive Songs

-   CBC Radio 2, Christian Music CJSI and Classic Country CKMX play the highest percentage of distinct music selections.

-   Contemporary Hit Radio stations CIBK and CKMP and Adult Contemporary CHFM have the   smallest number of unique songs.

-   CJAQ and CIBK share the lowest percentage of exclusive songs at 14%.

-   CBC Radio 2 has the highest number of distinct selections.

23.  The following table shows the distribution of duplicated songs by station:

Figure G: Duplicated Songs by Station

-   CBC Radio 2 has the second lowest ratio of shared songs behind CJSI.

-   Gold based stations CJAQ, CFGQ and CFLX have the highest number of duplicated songs. All of these station share songs with 6 other stations.

-   CJAQ and CIBK have the highest percentage of duplicated songs in their respective libraries at 86%.

-   Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) CIBK and CKMP have the smallest universes and the highest percentage of duplication at 86% and 73% respectively.

-   CJSI and CKMX share library with only one other station.

24. Consistent with the highest number of distinct songs CJSI, CBC Radio 2 and CKMX generate the highest percentage of exclusive spins:

Figure H: Percentage of Duplicated Spins

-   CJSI sees almost all of its spins as exclusive. CBC Radio 2 and Classic Country CKMX have 85% and 81% of their spins exclusively.

-   CIBK has the fewest distinct spins making up 2% of it airplay.

-   CHR CKMP and gold based CJAQ also show low exclusive spins at 12% and 13% respectively.   

25. The following table shows the distribution of duplicated spins by station:

Figure I: Duplicated Spins by Station

-   CHRs CIBK and CKMP register the highest number and the highest percentage of duplicated spins.

-   CJSI, CBC Radio 2 and CKMX have the lowest percentage of duplicated spins.

-   Christian Music CJSI, Classic Country CKMX and Contemporary Country CKRY share spins with the fewest stations.

CBC Radio 2

26. The following table Figure J shows CBC Radio 2’ songs and spins detected over the 30 day period.

-   CBC Radio 2 plays the largest library with 3356 titles compared to the next highest 1244 titles at Classic Country CKMX

-   89% of CBC Radio 2’s songs (2976 titles) are exclusive to the station. 11% of CBC Radio 2’s songs are shared with as many as 6 other stations.

-   Distinct title ownership of 89% is higher than the cumulative market rate of 81%.

Figure J: CBC Radio 2 Song & Spin Analysis

27. Songs shared by CBC Radio 2 at 11% form a smaller portion of the station library than the 19% seen at the cumulative market. This speaks to less reliance on common threading titles.

28. Of the 4912 spins 85% are unique and ranks CBC Radio 2 second only to Christian Music CJSI in terms of distinct airplay.

29. The 380 songs CBC Radio 2 shares with other stations create 15% (741) of the spins. These same songs generate 5694 spins at 13 other stations. In all the shared songs play 6435 times in 30 days.

30. We examine the duplicated songs and spins to determine CBC Radio 2’s share of airplay. For example the table shows the 233 songs playing with one other station receive 458 spins at CBC for 9% of Radio 2’s airplay. The combined 2325 spins with one other station means CBC Radio 2’s share of spins from those 233 songs is 20% of the airplay for those songs in Calgary.

31. CBC Radio 2’s 380 duplicated songs generate 741 spins. Combining CBC Radio 2 and other stations’ Airplay (5694 spins) there is a total of 6435 combined spins.

-   The “Duplicated Spins by Other Stations” portion of the table identifies the origin of the 5694 other station spins. The top 6 stations are:

• CFXL Adult Hits            1089 spins for 19% of shared play
• CIGY Hot AC                  918 spins for 16% of shared play
• CJAQ Adult Hits              901 spins for 16% of shared play
• CFGQ Classic Rock         788 spins for 14% of shared play
• CHFM Soft AC                 565 spins for 10% of shared play
• CFEX Modern Rock         520 spins for 9% of shared play

32. Over 50% of spins from shared songs with CBC Radio 2 comes from a wide variety of mainstream stations; 2 Adult Hits, 1 Classic Rock, 1 Hot AC, 1 Soft AC and 1 Modern Rock.

33. CBC Radio 2’s duplicate songs are least played at CHR/Top 40, Country and Christian Music stations.

34. Modern Rock CFEX creates 9% of the spins from the songs shared with CBC Radio 2.

35. CBC Radio 2 duplicates titles that common thread audience from broad appeal formats like Adult Hits (JACK, XL), Classic Rock, Hot AC and Soft AC as well as Modern Rock which typically targets a narrower niche - younger males.

36. As shown in Figure E the 8 songs shared by a coalition of 7 stations CBC Radio 2 common threads familiar songs with broad appeal in a low rotation.

Calgary Market Data

37. Appended to this report are 5 Excel data files for the following time frames:

30 days: January 31 – March 1

Week 1: January 31 – February 6

Week 2: February 7 - 13

Week 3: February 14 - 20

Week 4: February 21 - 27

38. Each file contains market data including song and spin detections for the time fame including;

-   A market and station summary

-   A detailed breakout of exclusive and shared songs and spins by station

-   Tracking of shared airplay by common stations.

-   A market playlist showing the spins and placement by station by artist and title.

-   The 30 day file includes individual playlists for each station.

Quebec City Market Overview

39. The Quebec City portion of the study shows that unique songs are in the majority of the musical inventory at 82% of all songs. These songs also make up a smaller portion (43%) of the total airplay. The majority of airplay in the Quebec market is driven by 16% of the musical universe.

-   Over 30 days 84% of the songs are exclusive. These songs are unique to one station.

-   43% of all spins are generated by the exclusive songs

-   In contrast 57% of the airplay is from the 16% of the universe consisting of duplicated songs.

40. Few songs shared by many stations drive airplay:

Figure K: Quebec Exclusive and Duplicated Airplay

41. The ratio of exclusive to duplicated songs and spins is consistent over 4 weeks:

Figure L: Quebec City Four week Airplay

42. In Quebec City 2196 songs, 16% of the 30 day universe are played on at least 2 stations.

Figure M: Quebec City Duplicated Songs and Spins

43. As songs are shared by more stations the resulting spins increase in proportion. For example the 1054 songs   played by two stations are 48% of the duplicated library delivering 30% of the spins. By contrast, the 626 songs played at three stations (just over half the songs at two stations) create only 5% less spins.

44. Favourite songs common thread playlists and enjoy more frequent airplay. Clearly, the more stations sharing a song the higher the average spins or rotation for the song per station.

Figure N: Quebec City Duplicated Songs Rotation

Duplication by Station

45. Seven stations is the largest group sharing a song in Quebec. The following table shows the eight songs and the 30 day spins on these stations:

Figure O: Quebec City Spins and Songs shared by Seven Stations

46: Observations on the 5 songs shared by these stations;

-   Only Classical CJSQ does not play at least one of these songs.

-   SRC Espace Musique plays 4 of the 5 songs omitting “All Summer Long”.

-   Four stations CJMF, CITF, CJEC and CHEQ play all 5 titles.

-   Kid Rock is the only non-Francophone artist on this list.

-   CHXX plays only the Kid Rock track from the list.

-   CFOM plays 4 of the 5 songs but exposes this list the most with 87 spins.

-   All of these tracks are Gold.

47. The following table shows the distribution of duplicated songs by station;

Figure P: Quebec City Duplicated Songs by Station

-   SRC Espace Musique has the largest musical inventory at 4655 tracks.

-   CHR/ Top 40 CFEL has the smallest library with 181 titles, 129 of those shared with other stations.

-   Adult Hits CHEQ has the most number of duplicated songs in its library.

-   CJSQ has the lowest ratio of duplicated titles at less than 1% followed by SRC Espace Musique at 5%.

-   CJSQ shares only 5 titles all with SRC Espace Musique.

-   CITF and CJEC both AC and Adult Hit CFOM have over 75% of their individual libraries played at other stations.

-   SRC Espace Musique shares 252 songs with 6 other stations but this number constitutes a significantly small portion of the overall library.

-   Rock station CHXX shares only 9% of its library with other market stations making it the most distinct purveyor of mainstream music in Quebec City.

48. As with the highest number of distinct songs it follows that CJSQ, SRC Espace Music and CHXX generate the highest percentage of exclusive spins

Figure Q: Quebec City Percentage of Exclusive Spins

-   There is little overlap between the two stations airing Classical Music. Save 10 spins shared with SRC Espace Musique, CJSQ owns virtually all spins from its music.

-   Rock oriented CHXX and CJMF have the highest ratio of distinct spins amongst the mainstream stations.

-   Both AC CITF and Adult Hits CFOM have less than 10% of their spins from unique music.

49. The following table demonstrates how duplicated spins are distributed by station.

Figure R: Quebec City Duplicated Spins by Station

-   The highest number and percentage of duplicated spins is at CITF.

-   Two other stations are close to CITF in terms of both the number and ratio of duplicated spins; CFOM and CJEC.

-   CJSQ, SRC Espace Musical and CHXX have the lowest percentage of duplicated spins.

-   CFEL, CFOM, CHIK, CITF and CJEC all share a significant percentage of music with at least 4 other stations.

SRC Espace Musique

50. The following table Figure S shows SRC Espace Musique’ songs and spins detected over the 30 day period.

-   SRC Espace Musique plays the largest library with 4655 titles. The next highest library is 3475 titles at Classic CJSQ.

-   95% of CBC Radio 2’s songs (4403 titles) are exclusive to the station. 5% of CBC Radio 2’s songs are shared with 6 other stations.

-   Distinct title ownership of 95% is higher than the cumulative market rate of 84%.

Figure S: SRC Espace Musique Song & Spin Analysis

51. SRC Espace Musique shares 5% of its library a smaller portion than the 16% noted for the cumulative market. There is less reliance on mainstream material.

52. CJSQ plays the most distinct music with virtually all of its spins from unique titles. SRC Espace Musique ranks second with 93% of its airplay unique to the station.

53. The 252 songs SRC Espace Musique shares with other stations create 7% (465) of its spins. These songs generate 3394 spins at 9 other stations. In all these shared songs play 3859 times in 30 days making up 0.6% of all the market’s airplay.

54. We look at the duplicated songs and spins to determine SRC Espace Musique’ share of airplay. Figure S shows the 98 songs playing with one other station receive 182 spins at SRC thereby creating 3% of its airplay. The combined 605 spins with one other station means SRC Espace Musique’ portion of spins from those 98 songs is 30% of the airplay for those songs in the market.

55. SRC Espace Musique’ 252 duplicated songs generate 465 spins. Combining SRC Espace Musique and other stations’ airplay (3394 spins) there is a total of 3859 combined spins.

-   The “Duplicated Spins by Other Stations” portion of the table identifies the origin of the 3394 other station spins. The top 5 stations are:

• CJEC AC                       773 spins for 23% of the shared play
• CFOM Adult Hits           635 spins for 19% of shared play
• CITF AC                        572 spins for 17% of shared play
• CHEQ Adult Hits           456 spins for 13% of shared play
• CHIK CHR/Top 40         381 spins for 11% of shared play

56. Over 90% of spins from shared songs with SRC Espace Musique are partnered with a wide variety of mainstream stations; 2 Adult Hits, 2 AC and 2 CHR / Top 40 stations.

57. SRC Espace Musique’ duplicate songs are least played at Rock and Classical stations.

58. SRC Espace Musique duplicates titles that common thread audience from broad appeal formats like Adult Hits, CHR/ Top 40 and AC.

59. As shown in Figure O the 5 songs shared by 7 stations SRC Espace Musique common threads familiar songs with broad appeal in a low rotation. SRC Espace Musique rotates these duplicated songs in a slow rotation compared to the mainstream stations.

Quebec Market Data

60. Appended to this report are 5 Excel data files for the following time frames:

30 days: January 31 – March 1

Week 1: January 31 – February 6

Week 2: February 7 - 13

Week 3: February 14 - 20

Week 4: February 21 - 27

61. Each file contains market data including song and spin detections for the time fame including;

-   A market and station summary

-   A detailed breakout of exclusive and shared songs and spins by station

-   Tracking of shared airplay by common stations.

-   A market playlist showing the spins and placement by station by artist and title.

-   The 30 day file includes individual playlists for each station.

Conclusion

62. This study shows CBC Radio 2 and SRC Espace Musique play the largest libraries in their respective markets.

63. CBC Radio 2 and SRC Espace Musique fundamentally provide a large swath of distinct unduplicated music.

64. The music that is shared with other market stations common threads the most popular commercial formats; in Calgary AC, Adult Hits and Classic Rock. In Quebec the complimentary format style varies slightly replacing Rock with CHR / Top 40.

65. The titles CBC Radio 2 and SRC Espace Musique share with their markets is played at a slower rotation than observed at commercial radio. This means these songs at CBC Radio 2 and SRC Espace Musique receive less frequent exposure.

V. List of Figures

• Figure A: Exclusive and Duplicated Airplay
• Figure B: Four Week Exclusive And Duplicated Airplay
• Figure C: Distribution Duplicated Songs and Spins
• Figure D: Duplicated Song Rotation
• Figure E: Songs and Spins at 7 Stations
• Figure F: Percentage of Exclusive Songs
• Figure G: Duplicated Songs by Station
• Figure H: Percentage of Duplicated Spins
• Figure I: Duplicated Spins by Station
• Figure J: CBC Radio 2 Song & Spin Analysis
• Figure K: Quebec Exclusive and Duplicated Airplay
• Figure L: Quebec City Four week Airplay
• Figure M: Quebec City Duplicated Songs and Spins
• Figure N: Quebec City Duplicated Songs Rotation
• Figure O: Quebec City Spins and Songs shared by Seven Stations
• Figure P: Quebec City Duplicated Songs by Station
• Figure Q: Quebec City Percentage of Duplicated Spins
• Figure R: Quebec City Duplicated Spins by Station
• Figure S: SRC Espace Musique Song & Spin Analysis

Date modified:

2011-06-09