As Reported in Inside Radio:
Arbitron Advisory Council gives its blessing to a PPM restart. No formal vote was taken during a teleconference between Arbitron executives and the 23-member AAC, but chair Chuck DuCoty tells Inside Radio “We believe in PPM and getting it out there.” The AAC has expressed concerns with several problem areas, including sampling issues but it’s happy with progress being made. DuCoty says “The numbers are looking good and Arbitron is focusing on problems where they need to be.” He notes several issues being raised are things the industry has been dealing with for years in diary methodology. Several broadcast groups are pushing Arbitron to win Media Rating Council accreditation before deploying PPM into new markets. But DuCoty says “We don’t believe MRC accreditation is necessary as long as they are still aggressively pursuing it.” An Arbitron spokesman declined to comment. While all signs point toward restarting the rollout, Arbitron tells the AAC it will make a final decision by mid-month.
This story was reported on the same day that Arbitron put the kibosh on the idea of replacing 6-11 year old PPM carriers with carriers in demos where Arbitron is falling short. This is how Inside Radio reported the announcement:
Arbitron says jettisoning 6-11s will do little for PPM results. Roughly 10% of PPM panelists are children 6-11, but if that demo is dropped Arbitron says savings would lead to just a 2% increase in the remaining 12+ panel size. The company investigated a two-phase conversion that would have slowly replaced the 6-11 demo in existing PPM markets, while only installing 12+ panels as others come online. Arbitron says the results weren’t pretty. The average household size would drop (2.5-2.3) resulting in a panel made up of more households — with a larger number in need of young person premiums. The one upside: Arbitron estimates it would lose 2% fewer meters. Instead it’s proposing several options, including an 18-54 sample increase or adding a “supplemental” sample in hard-to- reach-targets like Men 18- 24. The downside for the ratings company is higher costs. Arbitron Advisory Council chair Chuck DuCoty calls Arbitron’s ideas “intriguing” but tells Inside Radio the AAC doesn’t think it would give enough of a boost to the 12+ sample. The Council is worried sample size will be a growing problem as PPM rolls into smaller markets, where stations could no longer run demo reports because the sample would be less than 30.
What this all means is that Arbitron essentially gets 6-11 year olds for free. Recruit households with married 25 to 49 year olds and many of them are going to have young children. To require Arbitron to replace the 6-11 year olds with a more useful demo like 18-34 would require that Arbitron recruit more households--and that costs money. So Arbitron won't do it. The oddest comment is this: Instead it's (Arbitron) proposing several options, including an 18-54 sample increase or adding a "supplemental" sample in hard-to-reach targets like Men 18-24. Isn't that what radio has been asking for all along? How is this a new Arbitron proposal? And why would additional 18-24 sample be considered "supplemental?" In most markets, Arbitron is falling well short of their promised sample sizes in young demos. How can getting closer to Arbitron's own goals be considered supplementing sample?
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