Portable People Meter offered in Australia

As part of the Arbitron/Taylor Nelson Sofres tender for the next Commercial Radio ratings contract, the company is proposing that Australian use the Portable People Meter (PPM) system.

The PPM system is “ready today to provide electronic measurement of radio audiences … and can deliver meaningful measurement as the broadcast industry evolves,” according to the company.

The PPM is an electronic measurement system that automatically tracks the exposure of a representative panel of listeners to encoded radio signals. Arbitron says the meter panel can provide “new and improved measures of audiences that are not available from diary-based measurement services.”

“We have prepared our bid to offer the most rigorous, high quality and high value electronic audience measurement service to Commercial Radio, both for today and for the future, utilizing the Arbitron Portable People Meter,” International Marketing Vice President Jay Guyther told AMT.

“The radio industry has to be sure that its method of audience measurement is ideal for the immediate present, and is also flexible enough to cope with the rapid changes that will occur in the next five years. Since our last bid for the radio contract, we have continued to meet with broadcasters, agencies and advertisers about their requirements for a radio measurement system. We believe that the PPM most appropriately addresses those requirements.”

Commercial Radio Australia is scheduled to make a decision on the next contract in January 2003 for implementation in 2004.