Arbitron Completes First Phase Of Portable People Meter U.S. Market Trial.

Arbitron Inc. marked the successful completion of the first phase of the Portable People Meter (PPM) U.S. market trial with the release of a third round of ratings comparisons for its new television, cable and radio audience measurement system.

Compared to ratings reported by current TV and radio audience measurement systems, the Portable People Meter reports higher total-day average quarter-hour (AQH) estimates for consumer use of electronic media – radio, TV and cable. These findings indicate that Arbitron’s new ratings technology is tracking media exposure missed by today’s generation of TV and radio ratings methods.

“Our success in the first phase of the US market trial keeps us on a fast track to deploy the Portable People Meter in local markets across the United States,” said Marshall Snyder, president, Worldwide Portable People Meter Development, Arbitron Inc. “By the second quarter of 2002, the industry will have the first direct comparisons of PPM audience estimates for individual radio and TV stations as well as cable networks. This is the information our
customers have been looking forward to as they prepare to use a new way of measuring radio, television and cable audiences.”

Since December of 2000, the Portable People Meter has been undergoing U.S. market trials in Wilmington, Delaware, which is within the Philadelphia TV market. Arbitron has also released ratings results from the first phase of the trial on July 19 and September 24, 2001.

The next phase in Arbitron’s demonstration of the PPM is to expand the sample to at least 1,500 people across the entire Philadelphia Designated Market Area (DMA®) beginning in January 2002. The increased sample size in the second phase of the trial will allow direct comparisons of audiences for individual radio stations and formats, TV stations and cable networks.

Nielsen Media Research is providing financial support and its television survey research expertise in this trial of the Portable People Meter. Nielsen also has an option to join Arbitron in the commercial deployment of the Arbitron Portable People Meter in the United States.

The PPM is a pager-sized device that is carried by consumers. It automatically detects inaudible codes that TV and radio broadcasters as well as cable networks embed in the audio portion of their programming using encoders provided by Arbitron. At the end of each day, the survey participants place the meters into base stations that recharge the devices and send the collected codes to Arbitron for tabulation. The meters are equipped with a motion sensor that allows Arbitron to monitor the compliance of the PPM survey participants every day – a quality control feature unique to the Arbitron Portable People Meter in the realm of media research.

Summary of Ratings Results

Compared to existing methods of measuring media audiences, the Portable People Meter continues to report higher average quarter-hour audiences on a 24-hour day, total-week basis for the combined electronic media outlets that encoded full time. The October PPM results show increased average quarter-hour audiences for cable and radio and equivalent AQH audiences for broadcast TV. In the previous two comparisons, the PPM reported equivalent average quarter-hour audiences for radio while showing increased average quarter-hour audiences for broadcast TV and cable.

For radio, the PPM again reported a higher average daily cumulative audience: 79.5 percent for the PPM vs. 66.6 percent for the radio diary. The PPM also showed less time spent listening for radio: 2 hours and 51 minutes per day for the PPM vs. 3 hours and 12 minutes per day for the diary.

The PPM continues to report shifts in listening patterns by daypart. Morning-drive AQH ratings are slightly lower according to the PPM, while Monday-Friday midday, afternoon drive, evening and overnight AQH ratings are higher as are weekend AQH ratings.

As with the previous two findings, these comparisons for October 2001 indicate that, for broadcast TV and cable, the PPM is reporting higher AQH audiences for all dayparts. These increases are due in part to increased viewing for men and people under age 35, as well as substantially higher cable viewing overall and the PPM’s ability to track viewing out of home.

About the Comparisons

For the month of October 2001, 38 radio stations, eight broadcast television stations and 15 cable outlets were encoding their audio full time and are included in these ratings comparisons.

The panel of consumers used for these ratings comparisons is representative of the market being measured, and the panelists have carried the meters with them more than 15 hours a day (median value) throughout the month of October.

The radio ratings comparisons are between October 2001 PPM data and the Fall 2001 Phase I radio diary data. These comparisons are for Persons 12+, as the diary radio survey begins at age 12.

TV ratings comparisons are made with data from the Nielsen meter/diary integrated estimates for the total Philadelphia DMA® for the October 2001 Nielsen survey. These data are compared with the October 2001 PPM results for total Persons 6+, which is currently the youngest age for PPM measurement.