Although rejection of People Meter (for methodology and execution) in NYC and Phili by the Media Ratings Council happened in mid& late2007, Arbitron only announced the failure today -- buried in 10-K filings with the SEC.

This leaves Phili (which no longer has diaries) without an accredited ratings service. New York failed prior to ARB stopping the diaries all together.

This is important TO YOU because radio's failure to provide advertisers with reliable and accredited ratings information is just another big step driving advertisers to newer media, many of whom offer absolute proof of performance, and performance based pricing.

What's the primary problem holding this back?

Big tech investment. Shame to see it go to pot.

In a nutshell, failure to recruit and maintain a statistically reliable sample across all reported demographics.

GIGO

Ok thanks!

Hey, what about a blend of the PPM (electronic) and the diary?

Perhaps having to carry the damn thing around for so long is not viable. On the other hand, the diary is just plain old, plain old.

So, an electronic diary then?

It chirps when a sample is needed, they do their thing, and there is an incentive for high compliance?

Mixed methodologies wouldn't get approval from any reputable statistician!!! Period.

The problem is getting enough 18-34 commitment to participate, and then getting daily participation from the agree-ers. Especially blacks and hispanics. Costs are already skyrocketing due to the sampling problems.

Meaningful incentives are unlikely, since radio is not going to pay more for the service, and ARB can't do it without additional revenues. It would be a huge help if advertising agencies would pay part of the costs, but they continue to receive the service at little or no charge, and they have repeatedly indicated that they won't pay for the service. "If you want us to place our ads on radio, provide us with quality information about audience sizes and demographics."

One real solution (IMHO) is a cellphone-meter combination which comes with free phone service for participants. The toughest recruiting demos, young - males - ethnics - would be the ones most attracted by this offer. The stand-alone meter, which has to be carried essentially 18/7 for years, is just unrealistic. (Compared to that, asking someone to record their daily listening for one week is a piece of cake...or apple pie.)

That does bring perspective doesn't it?

Nasty problem, but one I enjoy hearing and talking about. Learn lots just thinking through the what if's.

Some of the kids are moving into the 18-34. Man, they can smell the sell big time. Daughters are always willing to provide feedback. Would welcome the diary. Sons could care less --same for their friends too.

Live on their cells now too. That's got serious merit, IMHO. If it's on the cell, and does not devalue it for texting and such, they would be all over that huge.

This week I walked in to the living room. Kids had the radio on, which was unusual for early evening. Normally it's TV or U-Tube.

They had friends over, used the radio for atmosphere and had a coupla laptops, phones and such for kind of a virtual get together. Other kids, elsewhere had the radio playing the same, with all parties online chatting, some texting for "between the lines conversations".

Was a very interesting dynamic to watch. Everybody was listening to the radio, most were online in a chat room, some were just texting and staying connected that way, by relaying stuff through their text partner.

If I were the cell phone companies, I would make group text a feature. They would pay big time for that.

Hmmm... offer that service on the arby-phones. Sell it elsewhere to fund the effort as a whole.

TDanner - really enjoy your insightful posts and info.

Funny, as I was reading your last post, I thought to myself "wonder if there's a way to combine a cell phone with ratings technology?" And then you mentioned the idea.

Has Arb been approached or considered this?

It was repeatedly suggested to Arb in the early prototype days. I think generally Arbitron dismissed the idea as too expensive. I don't thing they realized either 1) how difficult recuiting for the PPMs would be; and 2) how universal cell phones (and iPods, blackberries, etc) would be. They should NEVER have gone to a stand alone device.

Does a branding effort, such as "ARBYchat" have a significant negative impact on the analysis efforts?

Just wanting to learn a little about the implications of: "Mixed methodologies wouldn't get approval from any reputable statistician!!! Period. "

Conveniently omitted in the original post is that fact that the PPM WAS accredited by the Media Research Council for the Houston market - the other market using PPM only.

So things are not as bad as tdanner would lead you to believe.

Some stations have changed format recently, based on the PPM, notably Oldies stations in Washington and Atlanta.

Houston is accredited.... but since accreditation, they've had such declines in sample size that Arbitron has had to promise rebates if their 18-54 sample size drops below 80% of target. (What other company expects to be paid in full for achieving 80% of what they agreed to for the price!)

Arbitron was able to devote 100% of its effort for years to get Houston accredited. It took ARB much longer than they forecast to achieve a viable sample for the process.

As soon as they tried to add 2 more markets (Phili & NYC) they ran into major sample problems. So ARB announced they'd go to meters only in markets without accreditation. Phili turned into such a problem, that they stopped plans to go meters only in other markets until sampling issues are resolved.

No double 1lossir has more solid ratings and research credentials than I, so I'll yield to him that this is not as bad he thinks I implied or stated in my posts. Sorry.

If I'm not mistaken, Houston's PPM sample was placed via one-on-one personnel. Arbitron deemed that to be too expensive, even though it achieved superior in-tab, opting for "diary" type placement of PPM's in other markets using telephone personnel.

Arbitron knows now to get the in-tab levels needed. They just don't want to pay-the-tab, since it's going to come out of their pocket.

One real solution (IMHO) is a cellphone-meter combination which comes with free phone service for participants.
With the number "phones" these days that also have radios, MP3 players, etc., I have an even more evil idea than free phone service for participants... privacy geeks, put your tin foil hats on!
Have a rating service "partner" with one/more of the major cell phone companies, who would in turn send out a change to their terms of service (which almost nobody reads [OK, I read these things but I no longer have a cell phone]) that says by subscribing to their phone service, the service provider retains the right to log use of non-telephonic audio entertainment and share it with a 'trusted partner who will use only aggregate information for statistical research purposes.' That way, not only would radio listenership via the built-in tuner be measured, but also what MP3s people are listening to, how many times, what times of day, etc.
So, not only would cell phone companies not lose revenue, but they'd also be raking in more for providing the data!
Scary idea, huh?!
(Please note that this is an extremely evil idea and I for one would definitely not sign up for cell phone service again if this is what happened.)

I was misinformed. Only the Washington station switched to Oldies. Atlanta is still up in the air.

It looks like the information was correct after all! The Atlanta station will switch to Oldies on Sunday.