Ratings giant Nielsen Media has told clients it will drop its landline-based random digit dialling (RDD) telephone sampling method for recruiting paper diarists, from November, in favour of one using the addresses of prospective panel households.
In the letter to clients this week, Nielsen said there were three key factors in the decision:
The rapid decline in the coverage of television homes provided by the landline telephone frame – it currently includes only about 75% of households in the diary markets whereas the address based frame covers c.98%.
The rise of homes whose telephone numbers do not indicate their geographic area, due to number portablility, and
The increase in the percentage of homes which have no landline and are therefore cellphone-only, especially in certain key demographic groups such as those where the head of household is age 35 or younger. Federal law prohibits the use of a dialer to reach cellphones without prior permission.
