Posted by chicagomedia.org on January 31, 2009 at 14:04:05:
Arbitron Updates PPM Progress
NEW YORK -- January 30, 2009: AM/FM streams showed up in 10 of the 14 PPM markets in Arbitron's "holiday" ratings period (December 11-January 7), and, as SVP/Marketing Bill Rose noted on today's PPM update call, "all but a couple were doing Christmas music."
The streams that made the ratings were Clear Channel Top 40 WHTZ/New York; CBS Radio Classic Hits WCBS-FM/New York, in Nassau-Suffolk; CBS Radio Sports WFAN-AM/New York, in Middlesex; Clear Channel AC KOST/Los Angeles; Clear Channel AC WLIT/Chicago; CBS Radio Country KILT and Clear Channel AC KODA/Houston; CBS Radio Urban WVEE/Atlanta; Clear Channel AC WASH/Washington; and Entercom AC KOIT/San Francisco, in San Jose.
Rose also noted on the call that the 14 PPM markets that are now live account for about 52 percent of radio ad revenue in the top 50 markets. Nineteen more markets are set to go live in 2009, including Miami, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and San Antonio.
With that in mind, Rose said, starting next month, Arbitron will be adjusting its PPM delivery schedule. Instead of delivering all the numbers on one day, the weeklies will be released Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and the monthly numbers will arrive on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the fourth week in each month.
Between the last call and this one, Arbitron got Media Rating Council accreditation for the PPM in Riverside, and VP/PPM Research Beth Webb said Arbitron was "very pleased" with the accreditation but continued, "Of course, accreditation is not an end point. We have committed to the MRC to work on further improvements in Riverside, just as we are committed to continuous improvements in all of our markets." She also emphasized that Arbitron is adhering to the MRC's Voluntary Code of Conduct, and the required audits have been scheduled for all the markets that are set to go live this year.
Asked later what's different about Riverside that got it accredited when other markets using the phone-based "Radio First" recruitment methodology haven't been yet, Webb said the MRC doesn't focus on any one particular metric in making its judgments
A Benchmark Is Not A Goal
Rose also reiterated points made in previous calls, clarifying once again that the benchmark DDIs Arbitron has set -- DDI is the actual sample compared to the target -- are not an objective in themselves. He said, "Our objective is, frankly, under ideal conditions, to deliver a goal of 100 DDI" -- that is, exactly on target. And, he said, despite the two long weekends in the holiday ratings period, Arbitron was "pretty darn close to hitting the exact target."
As previously reported, Arbitron saw a 6+ DDI that averaged 101 across the 14 PPM markets, and a 95 average DDI for 18-54s during the ratings period. The in-tab rate for the period came in at 74, one percentage point below the benchmark 75, but Rose pointed out that that was not unexpected with the long Christmas and New Year's weekends.
Webb then explained the Sample Performance Indicator metric, which has been approved by the MRC to substitute for response rate in electronic measurement. The SPI is the percentage of total persons in an original, pre-designated random sample who qualify as in-tab for the ratings on any given day. Webb explained that, if 100 people were selected as part of a pre-designated sample and 25 joined the PPM panel, and 20 of those 25 were in-tab on any given day, the SPI for that day would be 20 -- 20 percent of the original 100 in the sample. Those in the sample who don't join the panel are contacted every three months and asked again to join until their eligibility period ends. Across all the markets in the holiday period, the SPI was 18.4, with a low of 14.3 in San Jose and a high of 23 in Riverside.
Webb then detailed some initiatives for getting the panels closer to a consistent 100 DDI, including redesigned packaging, a website where panelists can track the points they've earned, and in-person coaching for selected demographics in the top 10 markets. Webb later explained that the coaching will include 18-34-year-old black and Hispanic panelists who show poor compliance; noting that if panelists don't get in the habit of carrying the meter regularly in the first month, it's "very, very hard to turn them around."
Blagojevich Bounce
VP/Sales John Snyder offered some insights from PPM data over the ratings period, including the significant bumps for Chicago News and Talk stations WBBM, WGN, and WLS when now-former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested. He also pointed out that daily cume estimates for top stations in many markets exceed newspapers' daily circulation -- for example, WHTZ's cume is greater than the circulation of the New York Times, and WBBM's cume beats the Chicago Tribune's circulation.
New Arbitron CEO Michael Skarzynski wasn't available to introduce himself during the call, which was delayed from Wednesday due to technical problems with the audio stream. But President/Sales & Marketing Pierre Bouvard said he'd guarantee that Skarzynski will be on the next call, set for February 25.
(Radio Ink)