ARBITRON LOSES ALL CREDIBILITY

[joshzz]

If you have checked out the latest ratings in Atlantic City, you will note that any company that didn't pay for the service is not listed. This means all Longport stations, the WIBG group and Coastal broadcasting, are not listed in the public information chart.

For ratings go to : http://www.******************


Basically what it means is that Arbitron ratings are absolutely meaningless. At least half of the stations that are now listed are fringe signal, Philly stations.

This is definitely a game changer. Arbitron may think they'll going to pressure stations into become subscribers by this action but it's going to backfire. Non-subscribing stations would do well to broadcast public service announcements warning listeners that it would not be worth their time to fill out Arbitron diaries because this station is not a subscriber and the data does not count. These stations should also inform the public that the reason they are not subscribers is because the cost of subscribing would cost the job of at least one or more employees and the station chooses to promote quality rather than paying for a service that is obviously flawed.

Unbelievable! Arbitron's behavior is utterly disgraceful..

 

[fennessy]

Unless there's a re-issue of the report announced in the next few days, Arbitron has done everyone...including the subscribers and highly rated stations, a disservice by publishing a flawed report. In my experience, it's never been their policy to not publish non-subscribing stations. I'm sure that the WIBG stations and Coastal have never subscribed...and they've routinely showed up with something. It's not believeble that WOND, with Don Williams and Rush ( now Hurley) didn't show.

 

[tom]

What are you talking about?

I looked at the ratings today on Arbitron.com and with
the downloaded data for Maximi$er, and all stations are there,
including non-coms ...

I have no clue what that site you have the link for is,
but I'm not registering, as it must be bogus.

 

[tophour]

Every station gets rated; Arbitron doesn't release non-subscribing stations to the general public. If you buy the book, you'll still see all the stations.

Good rant, though.

 

[tom]

Every station gets rated; Arbitron doesn't release non-subscribing stations to the general public. If you buy the book, you'll still see all the stations.

Right - and the ad agencies have access to Arbitron data, so the station
still gets ad buys if it's worthy.

 

[MikeF]

Tom -

I think what they are talking about is that Arbitron, in several markets this time, including Atlantic City-Cape May, is not releasing 12+ data for non-subscribers to the public. For example, the Radio-info ratings page only shows subscribers ratings this book. In my memory they haven't done that before, certainly never before in Atlantic City-Cape May.

Mike

 

[tom]

You're correct Mike.

Obviously, that doesn't make Arbitron "worthless" because the ratings
information isn't really meant for the public anyway, it's meant to help stations
sell advertising. If a station doesn't buy the service, they still get trickle-down
benefit of ad buys. I'm sure that within 10 minutes of the release time, every
station knows how they did, subscriber or not. They just can't (legally) use the
info to show it to advertisers.

 

[Tom Wells]

Arbitron is simply reinforcing the idea that it's all ( and only ) about profitability.

From the perspective of money for the sake of more money, this is good.

From other perspectives it clearly means nothing.

To the extent money means everything, Arbitron is great.

To the extent that money DOES mean everything, it's pretty much an immoral concept,
and this is why we see now how some can honestly say Arbitron has lost all credibility.

They should simply rename themselves "Preferatron" and there'd be no
conflict with the idea that the service was to provide an arbitrary assessment.

It's not arbitrary at all if it's only about money.
In fact, such a position almost defies the possibility of behaving in an arbitrary way.

Perhaps Arbitron is simply making it more clear to all that they are only about money.


Those who look toward values other than money can now choose wisely.

 

[joshzz]

Tom Wells you make a very good point!

It's sad that Arbitron is now taking it to the extreme. As a radio station owner in the market, I was extremely disappointed that Arbitron has taken such a drastic position.

This means in all markets throughout the country, Arbitron will be enforcing a new policy of pay or you won't get the general market info which until now was public information.

I expect a lawsuit or as I mentioned backlash from non-subscribing stations. We are contemplating the legality of running PSAs as indicated in my earlier post. If listeners to radio realize that for the most part Arbitron doesn't care about their input then maybe no one will fill out the diaries thus making their data even more meaningless.

If you are an owner in an Arbitron rated market and a non-subscriber I would especially like to hear your input.

 

[joshzz]

If listeners of radio realize that for the most part Arbitron doesn't care about their input then maybe no one will fill out the diaries thus making their data even more meaningless.

Let me re-phrase that:

If listeners of radio fully realize that Arbitron only desires to hear from listeners of subscribing stations, then listeners of non-subscribing stations should be warned that the hours they spend filling out diaries would be best spent elsewhere.

 

[Who Cares]

That's ridiculous, at best. Arbitron is a business. Businesses need to make money.

In this industry, radio stations and sales people have used the ratings for their bragging rights, marketing pieces (on and off-air) and advertising (both setting rates and being able to tout the numbers to a potential advertiser).

To simply make the inference that if a station doesn't pay Arbitron, then Arbitron doesn't care about their listeners, or whatever twisted thing you're trying to come up with is just wrong.

In other words, to suggest Arbitron is potentially fraudulent in the recording of ratings due to non-paying stations in the market is actually libel, and at the very least, wrong.

This is sour grapes, just because you can't see the numbers doesn't mean the numbers aren't true.

Remember last year, when a certain group of PAYING stations was reprimanded for tampering with 2 ratings books? From what I remember, people were running to defend the person/entity, and anyone who came against him/his stations was a "hater." If Arbitron didn't really care about the numbers, they never would've reissued the revised numbers.

Now, if you're with competing stations, you could argue that they just want to collect money because they should have thrown that group out of subsequent books, but you can't argue that if you don't pay then the numbers don't count.

 

[RockofHBG]

Something needs to be made clear: Arbitron is a private, for-profit company. It's not the government census. Their data is proprietary and meant for the express use of it's clients. In the past, if you were a non-subscriber caught trying to sell advertising using Arbitron's data, you were then forced into buying the book. Now, in the digital age when Arbitron ratings can be posted willy-nilly all over the web on various sites, it would be very easy for an account rep to use that posted data in a sales situation without actually broaching propriety. For example, you could go into a business, point them to a ratings website and say, "hey, check out this website, thought you might find this interesting" without ever mentioning Arbitron. Nowadays, so many companies don't subscribe, Arbitron wants to avoid non-subscribers from "milking the cow through the fence". Really, can you blame them?. Arbitron was so loose with their 12+ numbers for so long, some people feel entitled to free data. Most agencies subscribe, so the winners still get buys.

 

[flashback]

as an outsider i have these questions.

how did arbitron become the ratings an advertiser uses to decide how to spend their advertising dollars?

if suddenly you need to pay arbitron to show advertisers where you stand ,isnt that a monoply?which would make it illegal in my mind?

could someone make this clear to me?

 

[borderblaster]

Other rating services such as Birch have come and gone. Nielsen isn't all that interested. You're welcome to start a rating service tomorrow.

 

[nd2023]

The market only supports one ratings service. It is hard to get all the required data.

 

[amfmsw]

Rock, you're partially right, then...

No one has use for generic 12+numbers or audience. That's a beauty contest, a barometer of health. Growth or contraction. No salesperson uses it. None I know of. It's worthless in a sales situation, 'through a fence' or otherwise. A business needs to target its' customers, right?. So does the salesperson, a demo breakout, and that was never available.

Second, MOST agencies do NOT buy the book, especially Market 145! I speak from selling this area since 1985. The 1st thing out of their mouth, whether it's AB-Inbev, GM or a local auto dealer rep: "Include a ranker"...meaning they don't have it. Those days of Eastman and Katz are long gone. And Local Agencies never bought it.

 

[RockofHBG]

No one has use for generic 12+numbers or audience

True, 12 plus numbers are generally useless, but are an indication that could be used to give some fringe stations credibility and make a few sales. Arbitron is saying, you want to know numbers, buy them. I personally miss seeing all the numbers myself. It makes radio less visible and in my opinion, seen not as much of a factor in an over-mediaed world. Ratings get people taking about radio.

 

[joshzz]

RockofHBG, you made an excellent point!!

Now that Arbitron has dumped all non-subscribers from their public information release, it's going to have an adverse effect, ironically on Arbitron.

As a for instance the Atlantic City Market has lost about 40 - 50% of the stations as a result of Arbitron's recent actions. It's been said Arbitron is doing this in every market now.

Like many on this the Radio-Info boards, I enjoy comparing how particular stations rate in various markets based on format, etc. Now, it's not even worth looking at the general numbers considering that so few stations are listed. To make matters worse, more stations are dropping Arbitron due to the ongoing, depression.

 

[borderblaster]

SO again, why should you be able to use Arbitron's proprietary information for free?

 

[RE-20]

I think the point Josh is trying to make is that when you exclude certain information from what you release to the public, it casts a measure of doubt on the whole result in the eyes of the public, because they see some information "missing". Shame too, cause we all know here in Atlantic/Cape May that the Townsquare and Equity properties are always at the top of the list, especially now with Longport in a rebuilding phase. As far as free use of proprietary information, 12+ numbers as explained above are not of much value when selling. Arbitron Subscribers are given specific training and resources to help them sell demographics that compliment their performance. Most medium and large companies want rankers by target demographic, and the only stations that can do that are subscribers. At least in this market, the embargo of non subscribers does not help the actual subscribers.