Audience Measurement
Gross Rating Points (GRPs)
The sum of all rating points achieved for a particular commercial schedule, calculated by multiplying AQH Rating by the Number of Spots.
What is Gross Rating Points (GRPs)?
GRPs express campaign weight as a single, comparable number. If a station has a 2.0 AQH Rating and an advertiser buys 10 spots, the schedule delivers 20 GRPs. Because GRPs combine audience size with ad frequency into one figure, they have been the dominant planning currency in television and radio for decades.
GRPs can exceed 100 — a figure of 300 GRPs across a week simply means the campaign delivered total weight equivalent to reaching the entire market three times over, even though the actual unique Reach is much lower. GRPs split into Reach × Frequency: a 100 GRP buy might reach 50 percent of the market with an average frequency of 2, or reach 25 percent with a frequency of 4.
Why it matters
A standard shorthand metric used by media agencies to assess the total weight, pressure, and impact of a broadcast media campaign.
Related terms
- AQH Rating— AQH Persons expressed as a mathematical percentage of the total measured demographic population in a specific geographic market.
- Average Audience— The estimated number of people listening to a radio station or viewing a television program during any given minute of the broadcast.
- AQH (Average Quarter-Hour Persons)— The average number of individuals tuning into a station for at least five consecutive minutes within a specific 15-minute interval.
- Audience Composition— The demographic, psychographic, or socioeconomic breakdown of a station's listener base, usually expressed in percentages.