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Pretesting Co. Arbitron planned on introducing its people meter in two markets in late In April Arbitron presented another plan to increase the sample size of its radio rating service.
The company proposed replacing the current system of week surveys with week rolling average reports that would be distributed every six weeks. Thus, the new system would have eight ratings periods instead of only four per year. Although the new system would involve additional costs, Arbitron did not plan to charge more under the new system. Arbitron revised its plan to increase sample sizes after receiving negative feedback from broadcasters.
The company scrapped the concept of week rolling averages, which was not well-received by radio stations, and announced it would increase sample sizes by distributing more diaries. By the end of the number of diaries in continuously metered metro areas would increase by 30 percent.
Then, the sample size would be increased another 40 percent in to achieve a 70 percent increase over levels. In noncontinuously metered markets, the sample size would be increased by a total of 40 percent through the introduction of new diaries.
As part of the plan, radio stations would be charged an additional four percent and Arbitron would begin using a computer imaging system for diary storage and retrieval in the fall of Arbitron announced it would terminate its broadcast and cable TV ratings services effective December 31, A company spokesperson noted that competition from Nielsen resulted in fewer contracts and declining price per contract.
Arbitron had lost money for several years in the television ratings part of its business. It would cut more than positions from its workforce, leaving the company with about employees. The company planned to continue developing information tools for TV and cable stations to work with advertisers, and it planned to continue development of its people meter for radio and TV.
ADcom used a technology that combined pay-per-view with passive measurement to install household meters for cable TV ratings. Scarborough conducted qualitative research on the habits and media usage of consumers in 58 markets. It was expected that a joint venture between Arbitron and Scarborough would bring new research techniques to Arbitron's radio ratings service.
In March Arbitron released its first study of new media preferences. The company collected information about consumer electronic and entertainment preferences from 4, U.
The company also entered into a joint venture with ASI Market Research and Next Century Research to create the Interactive Information Index, which would rate interactive media in terms of consumer preferences. Arbitron was plagued with data collection errors in , when books from nine markets had to be reissued.
To address this problem the company created a new position, director of data collection, and rehired Pierre Bouvard as general manager. Beginning with its spring radio survey, Arbitron began calling college and military residences that were equipped with private phones in an effort to better measure the traditionally hard-to-measure toyear-old male group.
More than , such numbers were added to the sample base in 51 markets. In Arbitron won a patent infringement lawsuit brought against it by Pretesting Co. The suit centered on Arbitron's portable people meter, which Pretesting claimed violated its portable sound-technology patents.
Because of the lawsuit, Arbitron had only developed a working prototype of the people meter, which was a passive measuring device that recorded inaudible sound signals encoded in radio and television programs.
It was the first step in Arbitron's plan to expand outside of North America. The company planned to bid on the official U.
However, it was unsuccessful in its bid, but still planned to develop a presence in the United Kingdom. In a related acquisition, Arbitron purchased the overseas TV and cable software products of Tapscan Inc. Later in Arbitron began testing its personal portable meters in Manchester, England.
In Arbitron released a study on Internet radio habits. By the end of the company had released its first monthly report on Internet radio usage. By the monthly reports covered nearly channels on the Internet. Arbitron would form an alliance with Lariat Software in mid to use its MediaReports software to collect data directly from servers to report the number of unique listeners to an audio channel on the Internet. A competitor, MeasureCast Inc.
In low response rates became a crisis of sorts for the diary method of tracking radio and television audiences. As a result, both Arbitron and Nielsen were under pressure to develop alternatives to the diary method. Arbitron's average response rate on its radio listener surveys was The lowest response rate in any single market dropped to Among the steps Arbitron took to boost response rates was to offer higher cash payments, make more telephone calls to survey participants, and repackage the diaries.
Advertising buyers were disgruntled at the start of when Arbitron had to delay the release of its fall ratings report by 21 days. The company explained that the delay was due to its new diary-processing system and issues related to Y2K compliance. In mid Nielsen and Arbitron announced they would cooperate in testing Arbitron's new portable people meter. The test would take place in the Philadelphia-Wilmington, Delaware, market with people during the fourth quarter of For the test, Nielsen would contribute its expertise in TV surveys.
In July it was announced that parent company Ceridian Corporation would spin off Arbitron in Ceridian and Arbitron would split off into two publicly traded companies. Arbitron consistently had annual profit margins of 30 percent or more, making it a cash cow for its parent company. It was speculated that once it became a public company, Arbitron would be acquired by another media firm, possibly the Dutch-based VNU, which acquired Nielsen one year after Nielsen went public.
Taylor Nelson Sofres of the United Kingdom was mentioned as another possible buyer. While a shift to digital listening cannot explain away all erosion when there is a decline in the ratings, all indicators point to digital listening reaching critical mass sometime soon.
For many years, the audio industry has yearned for a measurement service that captures audio listening across all platforms. Last month, Arbitron unveiled details for its own forthcoming Internet radio ratings service — the Total Audience Measurement service. In doing so, Arbitron is treading a fine line between trying to please both its current customer base — radio broadcasters who are paying a high price for PPM ratings — and potential new customers — such as web pureplays.
By announcing the new service, Arbitron has invigorated an ongoing debate: "what is radio"? The summary below lays out what details have been shared so far, and the implications for NPR and member stations.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach for measuring and selling audio. Each of the many ways to listen to audio has its own measurement system andeach has tools which are evolving to meet marketplace demand. This causes confusion on how best to evaluate performance and how to make transactions for advertisements. As consumers change how they listen, arguably so should how the industry buys and sells audio.
And as online audio continues to grow, then the need to sell air-time beyond the local market will also grow — both locally and across different markets. NPR releases broadcast ratings twice a year for its national shows, the basis of which NPR uses to generate revenue for corporate underwriting and to charge member stations to carry the newsmagazines.
Later this year, NPR will provide webcast metrics for member stations through a new partnership with AndoMedia. This will enable greater insights into the amount of digital listening to station streams, but will be a separate service from Arbitron.
Technically yes, but the impact is minimal. Arbitron has only just started to include HD and Streaming listening from PPM-measured markets into its national broadcast ratings. Measuring exposure is one thing and the PPM does that quite well , but including that listening into the ratings which are based on broadcast listening behavior is another matter. The PPM can collect listening data from new forms of radio HD, Internet streaming , but it struggles to capture audio from devices that requires a headset such as a smartphone or a mp3 player.
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