listenership

noun lis·ten·er·ship \ ˈlis-nər-ˌship , ˈli-sᵊn-ər- \

|Updated on: 27 Jul 2018

Definition of listenership

: the audience for a radio program or recording; also : the number or kind of that audience

Recent Examples of listenership from the Web

Puerto Rico uses a quarterly diary survey to measure listenership.

— johnny diaz, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Radio listenership spiked in Puerto Rico, Florida and Texas after hurricanes, survey says," 12 June 2018
Radio listenership among people ages 6 and older shot up 54 percent in the Houston-Galveston area of Texas and 20 percent in Austin the week that Harvey made landfall on Aug. 25 compared to the previous four weeks, according to Nielsen.

— johnny diaz, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Radio listenership spiked in Puerto Rico, Florida and Texas after hurricanes, survey says," 12 June 2018
Radio listenership in Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida surged in the aftermath of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, according to a report from Nielsen Audio — the radio ratings company.

— johnny diaz, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Radio listenership spiked in Puerto Rico, Florida and Texas after hurricanes, survey says," 12 June 2018
Other genres self-consciously evolve from old traditions and aim for lasting listenership, as seen, again, in Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar.

— spencer kornhaber, The Atlantic, "Was Classic Rock a Sound, or a Tribe?," 28 May 2018
Audio companies such as Gimlet Media, Wondery and 60dB have raised millions from investors in recent years, riding a wave of exploding listenership in the U.S. and beyond.

— benjamin mullin, WSJ, "With $40 Million, Podcast Upstart Luminary Media Builds a Platform," 11 May 2018
And his labor shows: The podcast has 150 perfect reviews on iTunes, and Phillips believes his listenership is approaching 15,000 streams per month.

— chris van leuven, Outside Online, "The Best Adventure Podcast You Should Be Listening To," 19 Apr. 2018
As noted above, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay ranks songs based on audience impressions or the size of listenership for the week.

— trevor anderson, Billboard, "Drake's 'God's Plan' Ties Record for Fastest Trip to Top 10 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Chart," 7 Feb. 2018
The onetime unifier Taylor Swift seems set on dividing her potential listenership into camps of friends and rivals with her barbed new material.

— spencer kornhaber, The Atlantic, "Kelly Clarkson's Retro, Uplifting Dream of Unity," 27 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'listenership.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.