Spring 2003 Arbitron Response Rates – Top 25 Radio Markets.

Arbitron Inc. announced that new techniques designed to address the steady decline in response rates are having a positive impact on sample quality in the Top 10 markets.

The average radio survey response rate in the Top 10 radio metros for Spring 2003 was 29.0%–equal to the Spring 2002 measure for the same markets. In the Top 10 markets, Arbitron offers diarykeepers in black and Hispanic households an additional cash bonus for returning a completed diary. This technique is called “promised incentive for return.”

In markets ranked 11 to 25, where the “promised incentive for return” treatment has not been implemented, the average radio survey response rate declined from 33.0% in 2002 to 31.2% in 2003. The average metro response rate across the Top 25 markets for Spring 2003 was 30.3%, down 1.1 points from Spring 2002.

Across the Top 25 markets, consent rate – a measure of the public’s willingness to say “yes” when asked by Arbitron to participate in the survey – continued to decline. Offsetting the decline in consent rate in the Top 10 markets was an increase in return rate, the percent of people in households that said “yes” who later returned a usable diary.

“We introduced ‘promised incentive’ in Fall 2002 for black and Hispanic households in the Top 10 markets,” noted Ed Cohen, vice president, Domestic Research, Arbitron Inc. “By offering these difficult-to-survey segments of the population an added cash bonus for returning a usable diary, we saw an increase in diary returns from these households. By Spring 2003 in the Top 10 markets, we saw a pause in the continuing decline in survey response rates.”

“While the results for Spring in the Top 10 markets are gratifying, our work in addressing declining response rates is far from over,” said Owen Charlebois, president, U.S. Media Services, Arbitron Inc. “We remain committed to our multiyear program, which is designed to enhance the quality of our radio ratings service across a number of key areas including response rates.”

“Promised incentive for consent” slated for 40 markets

Arbitron is currently testing the impact of offering respondent households a monetary premium just for saying “yes” to taking part in the Arbitron radio survey. This new approach, designed to improve consent, is an adaptation of the current use of the “promised incentive” procedure as a return rate enhancer.

Assuming success in the 2003 test, Arbitron will implement the “promised incentive for consent” procedure in 40 markets (the 25 lowest response rate markets, the balance of the Top 10 and the 10 Metros embedded in these markets). At the same time, Arbitron would discontinue the “promised incentive for return” technique currently in place in the Top 10 markets.

If the 2003 test of the “promised incentive for consent” technique is not successful, Arbitron will expand the use of its current “promised incentive for return” procedure in most of those 40 markets.

“Promised incentive” is just one of many initiatives that Arbitron is introducing in a multiyear program designed to enhance the quality of its radio ratings service across a number of key areas including response rates.

The program consists of targeted efforts including the opening of a new Arbitron calling center, new survey treatments, additional research tests, and an expanded research and development program—all intended to address the continuing challenge of declining response rates.

Definitions:

Consent rate: the percentage of eligible sample who live in households that said “yes” to keeping an Arbitron diary.

Return rate: the percentage of people who were sent a diary by Arbitron who returned a usable diary.

Response rate: the percentage of the total eligible sample who returned a usable diary. This can be approximated as the product of consent rate and return rate.

The Spring 2003 survey began on March 27, 2003, and ended on June 18, 2003.

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