Canadian Seal of Approval for Arbitron PPM

BBM Canada, the Canadian industry consortium for audience ratings, has adopted the Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM) as the official ratings system for buying and selling commercial airtime on French-language television in Quebec and Montreal.

The PPM-based service has been operating in parallel with the current push-button people meters since September 2003, and will replace them completely in the Quebec market by the end of the year. The new system uses a small, pager-sized audience measurement device to track broadcast, cable and satellite television viewing as well as radio listening.

Jay Guyther, senior VP, Global PPM Marketing at Arbitron said the decision represents 'a big step forward for the quality of television ratings', pointing out that BBM has spent many months 'thoroughly and openly answering industry concerns about the transition... They know more about this system than anyone else in the world'.

Jim MacLeod, president and CEO of BBM Canada says his board believes that 'the PPM is the only way we can keep pace with emerging media technologies and the changes in the viewing and listening habits of our television audiences... We must go with the viewers to capture, passively and automatically, every exposure to a growing number of TV and media appliances found in and out of the home'.

BBM is also examining the PPM as a potential radio audience measurement system in the province of Quebec, and has encoded all 28 local Montreal radio stations in anticipation.

BBM Canada is a not for profit tripartite industry organization owned and governed by its 1,000 advertiser, agency, and broadcaster members. The new decision makes it the first ratings organization to deploy the PPM for television ratings, although tests of the PPM have been conducted in more than 15 countries and commercial license agreements have been signed covering more than 30 countries.

BBM's web site is at www.bbm.ca and Arbitron's at www.arbitron.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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