Nielsen plans to discontinue measuring radio and TV audiences in the Puerto Rico market in December 2026. That means the island of 3.2 million people will no longer have a currency to buy and sell broadcast media on.
In a statement provided to Inside Radio, a Nielsen rep said that exiting the market was a difficult decision. “As a global organization, we must continuously evaluate how we deploy our resources across all regions,” it said.
The statement continues: “For over 15 years, we have had the privilege of working with our clients, and we are deeply grateful to them, our local team, partners, and the broader industry community for their commitment. As we carry out this transition, we are fully committed to doing so with care and responsibility—ensuring that the interests of the industry remain supported. We will work alongside local stakeholders throughout this process to facilitate a thoughtful and orderly handover.”
Nielsen’s subscriber base in Puerto Rico has dwindled. The five companies that subscribe to Nielsen Audio in the market account for less than 20% of radio listening in the market. Most of the island’s stations do not subscribe to the radio ratings service.
Still, Hispanic broadcasters worry this could be a blow to their business. “Nielsen’s Exit from Puerto Rico Media Measurement Could Create an Industry Crisis,” declared a headline in HispanicAd.com. “That would be a serious setback for an industry already confronting economic pressure, declining advertising budgets, changing consumer behavior, audience fragmentation and growing competition from global digital and social platforms,” the article by Gene Bryan says.
Of chief concern is whether buying radio and TV will become more difficult for advertisers and agencies in the market, according to Hispanic.com. “If Puerto Rico’s media industry cannot provide comparable and independently validated audience information, some advertisers may not redirect their budgets to another local media company. They may move the money out of Puerto Rico media entirely.”
Among current Nielsen Audio subscribers in market No. 17 are Hemisphere Media Group, owner of the two-top rated subscribing stations and three of the top five. Other subscribers impacted by the move are International Broadcasting (four rated stations), RAAD Broadcasting (three rated stations), Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting (two stations) and EMF’s K-Love affiliate WJKL.
Spanish Broadcasting System, one of the market’s biggest players, is currently not a Nielsen Audio subscriber in Puerto Rico. It owns the tropical “Z93” simulcast of WZNT (93.7), WZMT (93.3) and WIOB (97.5).
In fact, most of the island’s radio stations are not subscribers. The total AQH for the ones that do only adds up to 19.3 shares. The other nearly 80% of listening is to stations that don’t subscribe. Under the company’s Subscriber First policy, that listening isn’t reported in the summary dataset that fuels the major buying systems used by agencies and advertisers.
For Puerto Rican radio broadcasters, there is no alternative ratings service. While Eastlan Ratings now tracks radio consumption in 67 markets, Puerto Rico isn’t one of them.
TV broadcasters in Puerto Rico do have other measurement options, including Comscore, iSpot.tv, and VideoAmp.