Arbitron has just released the first official radio ratings results from its Portable People Meter radio ratings service in Philadelphia, officially inaugurating the era of electronic measurement of radio audiences in the United States. The release of the first round of official data comes after several years of people meter trials in Philadelphia and other US markets.
The March PPM survey ratings, covering March 8 to April 4, is being delivered to subscribing radio stations, agencies and advertisers, and will become the basis for sales and programming decisions in the same way as the former diary method.
Philadelphia is the first radio market in the United States to be measured by the Arbitron Portable People Meter system, an electronic audience measurement technology that has been in U.S. market trials since 2001. Over the next three years, the Portable People Meter is scheduled to be deployed in the top 50 markets in place of the paper and pencil diary method that the company has employed to collect radio audience estimates since 1965.
Arbitron CEO Steve Morris says it is “an important day” for the American radio industry, and believes advertisers will have “increased confidence in the medium,” because of the increased accountability that electronic measurement delivers.
“Radio advertisers have been united in their desire for radio to enhance its accountability by adopting electronic measurement of radio audiences… 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. We’ve already seen in our previously published studies of Portable People Meter estimates that radio audiences during commercials are far higher than anyone suspected.”
PPM data in Philadelphia continues to show that radio delivers consistently high levels of weekly and daily Cume audiences. The PPM also indicates that African-Americans spend more time listening to radio than other consumer segments of the Philadelphia market.
One compelling new finding indicated by the Portable People Meter ratings in Philadelphia is the dramatic increase in the composition of the radio audience (persons 18+) who are employed full time compared to what was reported by the radio diary.
The Philadelphia ratings show significant growth in the total audience reach of individual radio stations, a fact also beign confirmed in other test markets.
“That means advertisers can now turn to radio for something that they prize: the ability to deliver reach against a specific target audience,” says Arbitron’s sales and marketing head Pierre Bouvard.
The PPM data also indicates that listeners to African-American stations have the highest loyalty to the radio stations they listen to.
The Portable People Meter radio ratings in Philadelphia are not accredited by the.
Arbitron has submitted the Philadelphia Portable People Meter radio ratings service for accreditation by the Media Rating Council, but has not yet had final official approval. The Philadelphia PPM radio ratings service has undergone an audit by the audit firm appointed by the MRC for this purpose, and the accreditation process continues.
The Arbitron Portable People MeterTM system uses a passive audience measurement device, about the size of a pager or small cell phone, to track consumer exposure to media and entertainment, including broadcast, cable and satellite television; terrestrial, satellite and online radio as well as cinema advertising and many types of place-based electronic media. Carried throughout the day by randomly selected survey participants, the PPM device can track when and where they watch television, listen to radio as well as how they interact with other forms of media and entertainment.
The PPM detects inaudible codes embedded in the audio portion of media and entertainment content delivered by broadcasters, content providers and distributors. At the end of the day, the meter is placed in a docking station that extracts the codes and sends them to a central computer. The PPM is equipped with a motion sensor, a patented quality control feature unique to the system, which allows Arbitron to confirm the compliance of the PPM survey participants every day.
Australia still uses the diary method for ratings surveys, but industry players have been watching the results of US PPM surveys closely to decide when to jump to the more modern electronic measurement system. Advertisers have been lobbying the Australian radio industry to move to electronic measurement for some time, but the industry is cautious about two factors: cost and the possibility of the new method underrepresenting listenership.