Is the new Arbitron Ratings Policy Unfair to Smaller Radio Companies?

[ok walters]

Problem with Arbitron is that they have lost any credibility as a ratings service. If it is about ratings then you need to include all radio stations in the market. More than half of the stations in the Atlantic City, NJ market are no longer included in the ratings. I am currently investigating the possibility of starting a new rating service at much lower cost than Arbitron. As a former scientific programmer for the military I believe I can develop a statistical analysis that would provide area radio stations with the info they need and at far less cost.

Wow - that is pretty interesting. Never been in the ratings business but think you can fix it. I will put this post up there with the one where you urged Part 15 operators to buy a "real" station due to the fact that many are for sale for real estate value only. Do you ever think something all of the way through?

 

[secondchoice]

What ever happened to the "car" radio ratings. Somewhere back in the 1970's or 1980's a company had a "receiver" attached to a small dish antenna that could "pick up" the IF frequency and received RF mix a receiver generates and could tell what station the typical car radio was tuned to about 20 to 50 ft. away. IIRC they were going to park a van near a busy street or interstate and tabulate the "car" audience. With cell coverage or a WI FI connection you could give almost "instant" ratings to subscribers.

 

[TimeIsTight]

Problem with Arbitron is that they have lost any credibility as a ratings service. If it is about ratings then you need to include all radio stations in the market. More than half of the stations in the Atlantic City, NJ market are no longer included in the ratings.

It's just possible that the owners of the unrated Atlantic City stations have done a cost/benefit analysis and decided that subscribing isn't worth it to them. They may not be chasing national ad business that requires Arbitron ratings, or selling their spots "by the numbers."

Don't forget, Atlantic City is a resort town, with people from other markets coming to visit. Those tourists are very important to a lot of local advertisers from the casinos, to restaurants, to hotels and other recreation related local businesses. These businesses are interested in introducing themselves to the tourists over the radio as they roll into town. And the tourists never show up in the Atlantic City Arbitron ratings.

The Atlantic City diaries are issued to people who live in the area. It is Market-144 with 321,000 people, and is about 23-percent Black and Hispanic. It is not likely a lot of big national advertisers worry too much about spreading their spots around to all the stations in a market that size anyway.

 

[secondchoice]

What would happen if all of the stations in a +200 market did not buy Arbitron? I can understand where the Atlantic City operations might not make their money back in national buys. Myrtle Beach SC and any resort town could be in the same financial "squeeze".

 

[TheBigA]

What would happen if all of the stations in a +200 market did not buy Arbitron?

Then Arbitron drops coverage of the market. They just dropped two in the state of Michigan a couple weeks ago:

http://www.michiguide.com/archives2012/2012/04/newsmakers-and-links-april-23.html

 

[davideduardo]

What ever happened to the "car" radio ratings. Somewhere back in the 1970's or 1980's a company had a "receiver" attached to a small dish antenna that could "pick up" the IF frequency and received RF mix a receiver generates and could tell what station the typical car radio was tuned to about 20 to 50 ft. away. IIRC they were going to park a van near a busy street or interstate and tabulate the "car" audience. With cell coverage or a WI FI connection you could give almost "instant" ratings to subscribers.

One problem was that they did not measure AM. Granted, today that may not be all that significant in many markets.

But the other things was that they did not measure the near-70% of listening that takes place at home and at work, and they did not have demographic data or time spent listening data.

For a while, I heard that they were selling the service to retailers who wanted an indication of the stations being listened to in cars driving past the retail location so that they could buy them for "point of purchase" knowing that they were people who knew the area and could visit the location if they were "invited in."

 

[joshzz]

What ever happened to the "car" radio ratings.

I actually was talking with my engineer about such a system and the feasibility of developing it for the AC Market.... sort of a reverse Portable People Meter set up at strategic locations in Atlantic and Cape May Counties. The problem, I was told is that it would be too difficult to pick up the signals from each car radio.

There must be a better and cheaper way to establish ratings. As a former software engineer/scientific computer programmer for the military, I dealt with far greater challenges. This doesn't seem all too difficult but rather the real problem in my opinion would be in gaining acceptability and the cost involved.

 

[davideduardo]

I actually was talking with my engineer about such a system and the feasibility of developing it for the AC Market.... sort of a reverse Portable People Meter set up at strategic locations in Atlantic and Cape May Counties. The problem, I was told is that it would be too difficult to pick up the signals from each car radio.

That technology was developed, deployed and, most important, patented. Hundreds of sensors were mounted on poles along freeways in LA and Phoenix as well as on surface streets, and the system picked up the radiations from passing cars. The whole thing worked, and quite well.

It was not difficult at all to pick up the signals.

Advertisers and agencies did not like it, as it only covered in-car, and had no demographic information; it was as useless for buying as it was for selling.

There must be a better and cheaper way to establish ratings.

Advertisers don't want cheaper ratings, they want better ratings. That is why radio was more or less forced to pay 60% more than in the past to go to the PPM in the top 50 markets.

As a former software engineer/scientific computer programmer for the military, I dealt with far greater challenges. This doesn't seem all too difficult but rather the real problem in my opinion would be in gaining acceptability and the cost involved.

As I said, if Nielsen tried and pulled out of radio, despite their decades of experience and deep pockets, it is really unlikely that any one person can come up with a solution.

 

[Nostalgia]

In case you missed it, good article on the subject:
http://www.radio-info.com/programming/urban/the-reality-of-ratings

 

[KFodor]

That's a strange way of putting it. If radio was....

I stated it that way simply to illustrate differing perceptions held by the public vs people in the business.

The public thinks the radio is "for" them.
They never read the 1967 book defining public broadcasting as that, and commercial radio as a business district.

The public persists in thinking the "content" is what radio is about.

Radio people should know it's all about business, and business is by definition a "non-fair" zone.

It's about success in occupying ears, not listening or any kind of assessment of content.

The highest rated station would naturally be one that is compelling to listen to, but contains only content that becomes
immediately irrelevant or incorrect. Like news and sports.

Hey, wait a minute.

I don't think the public cares a whit about this. They care about what comes out of the speakers. And if it entertains them, they don't care if the station's #1 or #21.

 

[amfmxm]

This makes for very interesting reading, I must say. When the topic first surfaced I chose not to participate because I thought that the whole premise was idiotic, and ultimately Big A and David Eduardo popped-in to say whatever it was I would have contributed. Thanks, as always.

But it remains fascinating to me that there are so many (presumably) in the radio industry who think that Arbitron has various axes to grind against different categories of stations or markets or non-subscribers. And although, like any other longtime broadcaster, I've had my share of ups-and-downs, wins-and-losses--and serious complaints about how they do business (like a monopoly), I have never witnessed a single incident of favoritism or perversion of the ratings themselves.

Like any major research organization, their lifeblood is the integrity of the research. If they ever stooped to grind an axe... or to slant the numbers in favor of certain clients or friends... they'd be finished. They'd be killing a business doing hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

And in my first 45 years in the biz, I haven't seen it happen.

 

[ChiefOperator]

I believe the new policy that Arbitron has implemented is unfair to the smaller radio companies, which do not have the deep pocket books to pay the exorbitant fees in order to subscribe to Arbitron. Furthermore, these stations will suffer because they will not have access to the information necessary to ensure that there stations are performing adequately in their particular markets, which hurts their bottom line in the sales department. Moreover, the new ratings will not give an accurate picture of what's happening within a particular market. For example, the only two companies that subscribe to Arbitron in the Jacksonville, FL market (Market #50), which are the large national radio conglomerates Clear Channel and Cox Radio. As a result, only the radio stations owned by these two companies showed up on the March 2012 ratings book. Does anyone else feel that Arbitron is doing a disservice to smaller radio companies with this new policy?

I agree with you. Just so you know, you're station is entitled to Arbitron supplied equipment at no cost even if you don't subscribe to the service. Your ratings will be listed, but you won't be entitled to the information.


I just went through this with one of my AMs. As for knowing the ratings, the station simply talks to one of the stations that does subscribe.