Arbitron Begins PPM Radio Rollout

Arbitron has announced that it will begin the rollout of the Portable People Meter (PPM) system as its radio ratings service in the top 50 markets, beginning with Houston in July 2006.

The PPM(SM) (Portable People Meter) has been in US market trials since 2001. The electronic system will be used in place of the current paper and pencil diary method that the company has employed to collect radio audience estimates since 1965.

The schedule, announced today, would put the PPM into the top 10 radio markets by the fall of 2008, and into all of the top 50 radio markets in the following two to three years. President and CEO Steve Morris says last week's termination of the Nielsen Media Research option for the PPM has given the company the freedom to move quickly. 'Now that we are finally able to make a commitment to roll out the PPM for radio, we anticipate that our customers will be more willing to make a commitment to the PPM as well.' Morris adds: 'We've spent the past five years reviewing and refining every aspect of the Portable People Meter system in close cooperation with the US radio industry. We believe it's time for Arbitron to take the lead once again.' At the same time, the system will continue to evolve to reflect the needs of clients already examining the 'next generation' of electronic measurement.

Morris says the system should be good news for broadcasters. 'We believe advertisers will have increased confidence in the medium, thanks to the increased accountability that electronic measurement delivers. Stations will have new audience insights to make improvements to their programming and broadcasters will be better able to garner incremental revenue from new and existing advertisers'. To date, Arbitron has announced commitments by 48 advertising agencies/global holding companies as well as broadcasters and an advertiser. The agencies that have been announced account for 75% of all national spot dollars for radio.

Among the expected benefits are faster and more frequent delivery of ratings reports, better insights into how people listen to radio, more reliable measures of the total audience reached by a radio station and more stable audience trends with far less 'bounce' from one report to the next. In addition, it will cover new distribution methods such as HD Radio, Internet streaming, digital multicasts and podcasting.

Arbitron is online 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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