http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/nielsen-will-begin-measuring-tv-watching-in-bars-gyms-hotels/180588
Yes the ppm's will be measured from these places too.
Yes the ppm's will be measured from these places too.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Nielsen Will Begin Measuring TV Watching in Bars, Gyms, Hotels…
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
So, they're admitting their model for interpolating the sample is flawed then? That, or they're attempting to make the audience look larger than it really is to try to help ad rates. People have been watching TV in such places for years and, presumably, were counted in the cume numbers always reported.
How can you be sure they're really paying attention?
They can't. They can't be sure the people are paying attention at home either.
PPM is supposed to measure how many people are hearing the ads, period. Not actively listening to them, not willingly listening to them, just people whose ears are detecting the ads. Whether the ad registers subconsciously is irrelevant, although the advertisers certainly hope at least some "hearers" (as opposed to "listeners") will have the message imprint on their brains.
From the advertiser perspective, the objective is to get "impressions". Whether the source of the impression was selected intentionally or accidentally is not material.
We have the PPM because advertisers pushed radio to get an electronic system that delivered more granular data on a much faster timeline. Radio did not have a great interest in the PPM, even less so as the cost was very significantly higher. But the agencies wanted a system comparable to TV and its overnights. And they wanted a measure of impressions, not a popularity contest among stations.
The more I learn about the radio biz from you the more I feel it is not in charge of its own destiny.
There is no real change between today and the Golden Age of Radio in the 30's. Then, agencies and their advertisers actually produced many network radio shows, and placed them on the networks.
Radio is an advertising medium. We are between the advertiser and their customers, and our business model is dependent on keeping both groups happy. It´s been that way for about 90 years.
But how can they determine who's watching what? In most cases, people will be watching more than one game at the same time, especially college and pro football.
And exactly how are they measuring? A meter on each TV screen? All that says is that there are, for example during non-game hours, X number of screens tuned to The Golf Channel, Y number tuned to ESPN, Z number tuned to ESPNNews, etc.
How would Nielsen rate that bar-- one point per screen in that bar, and divide the stated capacity of the bar by those points? That still wouldn't be accurate, since how often does a bar fill up to capacity other than during certain times (happy hour, Friday nights, football Saturdays and Sundays, the NCAA Tournament, etc.)? My local bar isn't normally packed before happy hour, other than during football weekends and soccer tournaments. It's a fairly average neighborhood sports bar in metro Phoenix -- probably not worth hanging Purple People Meters on.
All it means is that members of the PPM panel, who wear the little pager-size devices, will have their viewing counted no matter if they are at home or away. The PPM goes with the panelist, not with the TV.
Nielsen announced earlier this month that they will move to employ the PPM for both Audio and Video measurement of encoded signals.
In the days long ago when sponsors actually owned the air time I remember performers like Jack Benny having as his show's main subject the renewal of his show - and it was the sponsor who apparently signed his check and not the radio station(s). Then those old shows died and the stations put music on the air and the relationship between radio, performer and sponsor (now called an advertiser) changed.
But what has changed in the measurement of listeners other than the introduction of demographics? In the old Benny days the sponsor must have had a good idea of how they rated against the competition.
OK, for the sake of discussion, let's say that I carry one of those meters (and I thought they had to be plugged into a radio -- how do they work with TV?). I decide to go to my local bar on Sunday and watch the NFL. Which game or network do I get credit for viewing? Since all games between 10 AM and 4 PM PT are on either CBS or Fox, which network gets the credit? I'm watching the Bears if/when they're playing, so most of the time I'm watching Fox. Once the Bears game is over, or if they're not playing, I'm alternating between all of the others on both networks.
It's even worse with college football, where one bar could be showing games on half a dozen networks at once, depending on the time of day.
The methodology of ratings has changed a good deal since the early 30's Crossley surveys.
Those were, as were most ratings until the advent of TV, done with telephone coincidental measurement based on households, not persons. Calls were made, and people were asked what they were listening to at the moment.
In the 50's, the coincidental was still used by Trendex, Hooper and Pulse. But The Pulse and Dr Roslow pioneered using 24-hour recall to use one personal visit to the home to reconstruct via a guided questionnaire the listening of each 24 hour period.
Then Jim Seiler of the American Research Bureau decided to do radio ratings using the TV practice of a weekly diary, which allowed for weekly cume and daily AQH / Average Persons / Rating data along with extensive demographics.
In the mid 90's, agencies wanted faster delivery such as they got for TV, and greater detail. Arbitron began developing the People Meter. The first one I saw in Columbia was the size of a brick... but it did work. As agencies continued to demand faster turn around (some of the data in the diary book was as much as 16 to 20 weeks old when it came out) like they had with TV. So, after on-air tests as early as 2000 and a market test in Philly in the 2002 to 2004 timeframe and a greater test in Houston from 2004 to 2006, the system began to roll out nationally in 2008 to 2010 in 40 of the top 50 markets.
In the period of the 70's and 80's, we had a number of attempts to compete with Arbitron. The Pulse was the last of the old guard to die, with the last book issued in 1978 (San Juan, PR). We had Birch, SRC, Mediatrends, Audits and Suveys, Burke, Mobiltrak and others who tried and eventually all failed.
The key to Arbitron's success was its sell-through with agencies. If agencies only used Arbitron, stations did not buy other ratings services. After all, the main purpose stations buy ratings is to be able to present to agencies and transactional clients and as a way of setting pricing.
I know that I've been in restaurants that could have every sports network on because of the number of screens they have set up, probably showing every event that is going on at the time. If a PPM panelist moves from one area of the restaurant or bar to another does what channel they're seeing change according to the device?
Also, if hearing ads are counted, how does that work in places where the audio is muted, possibly with closed captioning on? Even if the audio is on, it usually can't be heard over the noise of the customers.
Also, if hearing ads are counted, how does that work in places where the audio is muted, possibly with closed captioning on? Even if the audio is on, it usually can't be heard over the noise of the customers.
I'm guessing that the listening/viewing registered by the PPMs of wearers in bars and other places with multiple TVs and/or radios will be insignificant when the ratings are computed, as there won't be enough of those kinds of people in any one market's contingent of meter-wearers. Chances are you could go to the most crowded sports bar in town every night for a month and not encounter a PPM wearer more than once or twice, if at all. Their numbers and activity pale in comparison to average folks who are exposed to TV and radio in normal ways: in their living rooms, workplaces and cars.
The PPM detects a digital tag/burst inserted in program content and masked by it. If the PPM a person is carrying can hear the audio, the device stores the identification code and time stamp. As a person moves about, the meter is trying to detect listening or, now, viewing, up to 13 times a minute.
To get credit for a radio quarter hour, the meter must detect tags in at least 5 different discreet minutes in the 15 minute period. I do not know if they will have a different standard for TV and whether it will be more or less granular.
In TV, it has to be 5 CONSECUTIVE MINUTE of viewing within the quarter hour. Out-of-home viewing could actually help some ratings, since most bars, gyms and restaurants don't make the remote easily accessible.
Usually, the bar will only have one game with sound, the rest will be silent. Say, if a guy with a box goes to a bar tomorrow night, the chances are about 99% that the game with sound will be the World Series. What if the guy prefers to watch a hockey game on another TV with no sound? Does he only get "credit" for watching baseball since that's where the code information comes from?
- Status