Do Arbitron ratings also include online radio listening ?

[MikefromDelaware]

Has Arbitron ratings started including online internet radio listening, either in the PPM markets like Philly or in the diary markets like Wilmington?

I guess the same question could also be asked in terms of TV viewing. Has the Neilson folks started computing ratings for TV shows also from online viewing?

I listen to some radio at home this way online (especially an NPR show I might have missed WHYY has a place where you can hear recent shows you've missed online) or the AM station I want to hear sounds so much better online than over the air, or network shows like the Jim Bohanann Show that WILM carries via Westwood One late at night so I can listen when it's more convenient for me. I can listen to archived radio shows online at work (their filtering system at work prevents listen live broadcasts though).

I now watch all my TV shows online. My TV died, a few weeks back, and I got sticker shock when I went to buy a new one. As there are only two of us here, we just bought a larger flat screen monitor. So along with our Comcast High Speed Internet connection and their Fancast site, You Tube, PBS site, etc, we watch all the network TV shows we like (a day after their on air broadcast), plus all sorts of great old shows, movies, PBS shows, documentaries, etc, all online.

I realize that I'm past the demo either radio or TV advertisers want, but we keep hearing how fewer and fewer young people (the Prized demo) actually listen to a real radio or watch a real TV anymore and do all this stuff online. It would seem that the advertisers would want to know how many folks are now hearing or watching media online meaning hearing and viewing possibly their spots online rather than over the air. One plus for advertisers with online viewing, you can not surf the dial or the web during the spots.

 

[davideduardo]

Has Arbitron ratings started including online internet radio listening, either in the PPM markets like Philly or in the diary markets like Wilmington?

In the diary, the diarykeeper can write in anything they want, and there are now instructions on indicating online as an addition to AM and FM.

If an audio source is encoded, the PPM will report it if there is enough listening. Station streams are separately encoded unless 100% simulcasts (which few major market stations are) and some show up in the pPM ratings.

There are also separate online metrics, including Ando Media's streaming "ratings."

I realize that I'm past the demo either radio or TV advertisers want, but we keep hearing how fewer and fewer young people (the Prized demo) actually listen to a real radio or watch a real TV anymore and do all this stuff online.

The "sales demos" are 25-54 first, then 18-49 and 18-34 and the many subsets, some as specific as "English dominant Hispanic females 25-44" that are used for ad buys.

And radio's issues are more the amount of time spent as opposed to use; I looked at Dallas a few days ago... over 95% of all persons 12+ uses radio... just not for as much time. Radio's issues are about breaking away from the idea that we are in the transmitter business and looking for all the useful ways of distributing content as well as content variants.

 

[nd2023]

Yes, I remember B101's stream made the ratings sometime.

 

[bsquared11]

MikefromDelaware you're preaching to the choir to this consumer of media. Every time I post on this site about how it's not necessary to listen to KYW AM for information, for example, that traffic/weather and local news are available from so many other sources to listen to even in the car on one's OWN schedule, and that it's not necessary to watch local TV newcasts to get the information/and or to be entertained on THEIR schedule but instead on a schedule that pertains to YOU, not what management types want you to do when they say tune in at 11pm or whatever, I get lambasted by old school types who can't accept change and/or won't convert from their habits. We are moving into a world of niche broadcast, not mass broadcast, and the snowball is not going to stop rolling down the hill no matter how many traditionalists are upset by this fact. Technology has leveled the playing field no matter how old the consumer is, and will continue to do so EVERY day moving forward. Traditional broadcast methods, including ad buying, are evolving at a fast pace. Why would anyone listen to music that's programmed by someone else instead of being one's own program director playing ONLY the music they want to hear minus the commercials and silly talk by jocks? Technology makes it all available and at very little cost. Good for you to control your own broadcast schedule.