20: Chapter New Developments in Electronic Media Audience Research
Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM) In recent years the traditional methods for measuring audiences has not kept pace with the blending of digital technology. Current ratings systems will have an increasingly difficult time coping with the audience behavior in the age of convergence. Arbitron has recognized the need for changes in audience measurement. Its answer is the Portable People Meter (PPM). Arbitron developed the system to meet three needs: 1. 2. 3. A method that would be passive, making measurement easier and less burdensome on respondents, A method that could measure all personal exposure to media, regardless of the medium or the location (pervasive), and A method incorporating larger samples to allow for more segmentation of audience. (from Patchen and Kolessar)
The PPM is a radio, television, cable TV audience, and Internet audio streaming measurement device. Thus, it is unique, among other reasons, because it is the first such technology that is designed to capture audience data for radio and television (and the Internet). Arbitron first began work on the PPM in 1992. The goal was to have an automatic measurement system that required no user intervention beyond carrying the device. Arbitron tested the PPM in the United Kingdom for two years before beginning testing in the U.S. Participating radio and TV stations, cable sources and Internet audio streamers employ a device called an encoder which inserts a masked signal into the audio (the encoded signal is masked by the regular program content). The PPM unit is a pagersized device carried by consumers that detects and records the encoded station identifier and the time the listener/viewer was exposed to the media source. [Note: Individual programs do not have a unique identifier, only the source (e.g., station) is encoded.] The unit of data is 30 seconds. The unit has enough memory to store at least one day of event codes. The PPM eliminates the need for people to constantly track their listening or viewing behavior by writing something down in a diary. At the end of each day participant place their meters into docking stations that recharge the devices and send collected codes to a central collection box. This box sends data once a day via phone line to Arbitron's central computer system. Data received by Arbitrons computer then goes through a multi-stage process involving unification (comparing the PPM data to pre-set criteria to determine if a panelists data should be included). Suspect data is discarded. Remaining good data are merged. The data are then edited (attribution, duration, rounding) and weighted. The editing process primarily deals with how to assign periods of time that did not receive a source code or received an inconsistent code. Weighting or balancing id done according to the age, gender, geography, ethnicity, employment status, and reception status (cable, satellite, etc.) of the panelist. The meters are equipped with a motion sensor that allows Arbitron to monitor the "compliance" of the participants each day - to insure the survey participant is indeed wearing the PPM during the day. If there is no motion for 20 minutes, the green light on the PPM blinks. No motion for an additional 10 minutes causes the light to go off.
Respondents are told that, if they need to take the meter off or set it down for any reason, they should periodically give it a shake to keep the green light on. Arbitron gives participants three simple instructions: take your meter with you, keep the green light on (indicating activity/motion), and recharge your meter at bedtime. In the United Kingdom PPM test, Arbitron developed a point system to track how long the PPM was in motion during the day. These points are used to determine the bonuses paid to respondents above the standard premium paid to each panel member to promote high cooperation levels and retain panelists. When the participants place the PPM in the recharger/base unit, a small LCD display tells the respondent how many points were earned that day. In addition, a random prize draw is held each week for a substantial cash prize. In order to win a respondent's meter must have been out of the base unit and in motion at a randomly-selected time. Prospective panelists are called and become part of the enumeration sample. Arbitron later collects demographic and lifestyle information from panelists who may serve weeks or months. Arbitron reported that panelists carried the meters with them more than 15 hours a day (median value) during the month of October, 2001. Arbitron recruits and maintains a panel of consumers that it contends is representative of all listeners/viewers in the market. Arbitron has been testing the PPM since December, 2000. In March 2002 Arbitron announced that a total of 44 radio stations, eight TV stations and 22 cable networks serving the Philadelphia market (including Wilmington, DE) were encoding their signals for the U.S. market trial of the PPM. Many of these stations and cable networks have been using Arbitron's PPM encoders since August, 2000. Arbitron plans to recruit a total of 1,500 consumers (age six and older) to be outfitted with this passive audience measurement device. The PPM automatically reports the participants' exposure to those media encoding their audio signals. An important issue in the possible deployment of the PPM is the comparison of the audience listening and viewing estimates to individual station and cable network ratings delivered by current audience measurement systems. In December, 2001 Arbitron reported that the PPM yielded higher total-day average quarter-hour AQH estimates for consumer use of electronic media (radio, TV and cable; see table below). This indicates that the PPM is tracking media exposure missed by current ratings methodologies. The PPM reported a higher average daily CUME for radio (79.5% for PPM vs. 66.6% for the radio diary). The PPM also showed less TSL for radio than the diary (2 hours 51 minutes and 3 hours 12 minutes, respectively). For broadcast TV and cable, the PPM reports higher AQH audiences for all dayparts (this is in part due to the PPM's ability to track viewing out of the home). Arbitron anticipates releasing such comparisons for individual radio and TV stations and cable networks in its Philadelphia trial by mid-2002. Because the PPM measures out -of-home viewing, it is thought that sports and news networks will be prime beneficiaries on the cable side thanks to viewing in sports bars and offices as well as more accurate portrayal of daytime viewership. Similarly, viewing on college campuses should be more accurate. Another important advantage of the PPM is the fact that it measures listening and viewing 52 weeks a year. For local radio and television (in smaller markets) measurement, stations will not be ruled by the 12 or 4-week sweep. The PPM also provides a multi-week cume. It should be noted that, when TV viewers press the mute button (as is often done during commercials), the PPM will not receive the embedded coded information.
Q:
What might be the consequence of the PPM detecting higher levels of listening/ viewing compared to the diary or diary/meter? Total Media Comparisons: PPM vs. Diary/Meter AQH Ratings Persons 12+
Monday-Sunday, Total Day PPM (38 radio stations, 8 TV stations, 15 cable outlets Arbitron diary - Wilmington; Nielsen meter/diary Philadelphia DMA
Combined Media Broadcast Cable TV Radio Source: Arbitron 1313/2001
25.6 11.5 4.6 9.5
22.2 11.3 2.0 8.9
Nielsen is providing financial support as well as its television survey research expertise in the PPM trial. Nielsen has an option to join Arbitron in the commercial deployment of Arbitron's PPM in the U.S. Does the PPM really measure listening or viewing? True it records when the individual wearing the device comes within range of an encoded radio or TV signal, but is that really attending to the medium? Furthermore, how can the PPM determine listening location? Sources: Arbitron press releases, 7/19/2001, 12/13/2001, 2/4/2002, 3/7/2002; The Portable People Meter (C. Scherer, BE Radio (www.beradio.com), July, 2000, p. 58-64); Ratings Services Take a Walk (R. Tedesco, Broadcasting and Cable, 6/5/2000, p. 11); Preparing for Audience Measurement in the Digital Age: Pilot Testing Arbitron's Personal, Portable Meter (PPM) (R. Patchen & R. Kolessar, Feedback, 40, 1999, p. 3); Arbitron Training and Support Center (www.ArbitronTraining.com). Local Market People Meters The cable industry claims that billions of dollars are being lost due to the limitations of the current local audience measurement systems. The problem with diaries is that people tend to get lazy about what they report. Audimeters, on the other hand, only provide household numbers with no demographic information. The president of the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau believes that local cable loses as much as 40% of their numbers in measurement. In a broader sense, the current measurement technologies will fall short of accurately tracking viewing in the digital age (hundreds of TV signals, HDTV, multicast channels, interactive TV, PVRs, video-on-demand, etc.). One solution Nielsen offers to the measurement problem is the local peoplemeter. Like the national peoplemeter, the local peoplemeter would collect both household and demographic electronically, eliminating the need to collect demographic data from diaries. Local market peoplemeters would complement the national meters.
The long-term goal of Nielsen is to merge its NTI (national service) and its NSI (local station service). Local peoplemeters are controversial. Stations fear that their ratings will go down, just as ratings for the networks dropped when Nielsen first switched to peoplemeters nationally in 1987. At the same time, cable ratings are expected to increase (thus it was controversial when the prime sponsor of the Boston test was the cable company MediaOne). In general, smaller channels should benefit at the expense of network affiliates. TV stations will have to deal with a likely decline in ad dollars if there is a sudden droop in ratings due to the adoption of the local peoplemeter. If large, local markets switch to the peoplemeter, there will be a glut of demographic data as the meter will provide viewing data 52 weeks a year (unlike the current four 4-week sweeps). This would have implications for the networks which currently run blockbusters, new shows, etc. during ratings sweeps. Also, the peoplemeter will provide data on average-minute viewing, not the average quarter hour viewing currently available through the audimeter. The Boston test Nielsen began testing the local peoplemeter in Boston in 2000. Nielsen was to have 600 peoplemeters installed by August, 2001. [120 of the local people meter homes in Boston are also part of the national NTI peoplemeter sample, thus doing "double duty".] Then, a "demonstration' service began in October, 2001. At the point Nielsen ran two parallel services in Boston: the current audimeter + diary and the new peoplemeter system. Data collected during the demonstration period was used only for comparisons, not for actually buying or selling of advertising. At the end of the demonstration period (May 2001 - May, 2002) Nielsen planned to end the current audimeter/diary system. Nielsen reported that by May, 2002 Boston would make the complete transition to local people meters. New England Cable News and AT&T Broadband would be Nielsen's first two paying customers for the service. Boston broadcasters wouldl have to embrace the new system. One TV station general manager in Boston said "We think it's an inferior product. It's crazy that Boston is going to be measured one way; the entire rest of the country is going to be measured another way." Stations also complained that the new service would be costlier than the audimeter/diary service. They...