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PPM Friendly clock

Dr. Daliah

Dr. Daliah

I could be mistaken, but at the last industry meeting I believe Arbitron lectured on how PPM works, including when "it counts". For example from 0 - :05 no listnership is counted but then picks up :05-:15, and then cuts off for a few minutes until :18, etc.

If this is the case, and PPM has a fixed clock, why are so many shows varied with their break time? It would make sense to air commercials during PPM off time and have content when PPM is alive. Or am I completely confused, there's no master PPM clock, and I should just break when, I don't know, nature calls?

D
 
I'd say PPM is "alive" for the entire hour - otherwise there wouldn't be any spots or even news during those "dead" periods... My opinion...
 
Not sure what you heard but PPM measures the entire hour. To get AQH credit you need to have five minutes listening within one of the quarter hours (0-15, 15-30, 30-45, 45-60). Listening does NOT have to be in sequence but it does not carry over from quarter hour to quarter hour.

Examples:

Listener starts at :09 Ends at :14 - five minutes total listening. AQH good.

Listener starts at :11 Ends at :19 - eight minutes total listening...NO AQH credit as they only got 4 mins credit in each quarter.

Think if 15, 30, 45 and 00 as fresh starts...the clock resets at each of those.

Hope this helps...rating can be VERY confusing for sure!
 
Good explanation. It certainly accounts for the near-perfect placement of spot breaks on virtually all the stations in my PPM market (Phoenix), with the exception of most national talk shows, which seem to be on the old TOH, :20, :30, :50 clock.
 
buster2 said:
Good explanation. It certainly accounts for the near-perfect placement of spot breaks on virtually all the stations in my PPM market (Phoenix), with the exception of most national talk shows, which seem to be on the old TOH, :20, :30, :50 clock.
Click to expand...

A lot of syndicators have adjusted their clocks to something close to that. Maybe :15 and :45 instead, or :17 and :44. For some reason Rush Limbaugh is still on the "diary clock," where the second half hour has two floating breaks that often get crammed into the final quarter hour, resulting in ~8 minutes of spots shoved close to the TOH. A lot of weekend shows are still on that clock as well, like all the TRN shows, Gun Talk, The Money Pit, and Premiere's "Real Estate Today." The independent shows don't have as many floating breaks and they're more evenly spaced, with no locals/nets sharing a commercial break.
 
So a well placed "tease" to get people to listen at the right time would be important, plus drag out a story or a concept to take at least 5 minutes? That seems to be how Savage does it. Most of his repetitive BS stories take about 7 minutes to tell.
 
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