Arbitron is a leading consumer research company in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau (ARB) by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s. Arbitron's initial business was the collection of television broadcast ratings.
The company changed its name to Arbitron in the mid 1960s, the namesake of the Arbitron System - a centralized statistical computer with leased lines to viewers' homes to monitor their activity. Deployed in New York, it gave instant ratings data on what people were watching. A reporting board would light up to indicate what home was listening to what broadcast.
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Methods
Survey
Arbitron's syndicated radio ratings service collects data by selecting a random sample of a population throughout the U.S., primarily in 294 metropolitan areas, using a paper diary service two to four times a year and Portable People Meter (PPM) electronic audience measurement service 365 days a year.
The term commonly used in the radio industry for these ratings is Arbitron book, a carryover from the era when ratings were published in a soft-cover report that was mailed to clients. More specifically, in the diary-measured markets these reports were called the Spring book, Summer book, Fall book, and Winter book. Between these "books," Arbitron releases interim monthly reports called Arbitrends, which contain data from the previous three months known as "rolling average" reports. The two interm reports would be known, for example, as "Spring, Phase I" and "Spring Phase II.
Arbitron recruits diary survey respondents to note their listening habits in a seven-day paper diary and mail it back to Arbitron. The respondents are paid a small cash incentive for their participation. Turnaround time for release of data from the end of the survey period is approximately three weeks.
After collection, the data is marketed to radio broadcasters, radio networks, cable companies, advertisers, advertising agencies, out-of-home advertising companies and the online radio industry.[2] Major ratings products include cume (the cumulative number of unique listeners over a period), average quarter hour (AQH - the average number of people listening in a given 15-minute period), time spent listening, (TSL), and market breakdowns by age, gender and race/ethnic demographic. It is important to understand that the cume only counts a listener once, whereas the AQH is a product of cume and time spent listening. For example, if you looked into a room and saw Fred and Jane, then 15 minutes later saw Fred with Sara. The Cume would be 3 (Fred, Jane, Sara) and the AQH would be 2 (an average of two people in the room in a given 15 minute period).
Portable People Meter
Responding to requests from its customers—radio broadcasters, ad agencies and advertisers—that expressed their interest in the collection of more accurate ratings data, Arbitron introduced the Portable People Meter The Portable People Meter or PPM, is a device developed by Arbitron to measure how many people are listening (or at least exposed) to individual radio stations and television stations, including cable TV. The PPM is worn like a pager, and detects hidden audio tones within a station or network's audio stream, logging each time it finds such a (PPM) service in 2007. The PPM is a wearable portable device much like a pager or cell phone, that electronically gathers inaudible codes that identify the source of a broadcast, such as a radio station. Arbitron recruits and compensates a cross section of consumers to wear the meter for an average of one year and up to two years. The audience estimates generated from each monthly survey is used as the buy/sell currency for radio stations and advertisers/agencies. As of December 2009, the PPM is the currency in thirty three markets including:Houston Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and the largest city in the state of Texas. As of the 2009 U.S. Census estimate, the city had a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles (1,600 km2). Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area—the, Philadelphia Philadelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth-most-populous city in the United States, New York New York City, which is geographically the largest city in the state and most populous in the United States, is known for its history as a gateway for immigration to the United States and its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, it is also a destination of choice, Atlanta Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia, Detroit Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded on July 24, 1701, by the Frenchman Antoine de la, Long Island Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, United States, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City, and two of which (Nassau and Suffolk) are mainly suburban. In popular usage, the term “Long Island” generally refers only, Middlesex-Somerset-Union Union County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2000 Census, the population was 522,541. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Elizabeth. Union County ranks 92nd among the highest-income counties in the United States. It also ranks 74th in the United States by personal per-capita income. With, Chicago Chicago ( /ʃɨˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɨˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in both Illinois and the Midwest, and the third most populous city in the United States, with over 2.8 million living within the city limits. Its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland", is the 26th most populous in the world, home to an estimated 9.7 million, Los Angeles Los Angeles is the second largest city in the United States, the largest city in the state of California and the western United States, with a population of 3.83 million within its administrative limits on a land area of 498.3 square miles (1,290.6 km2). The urban area of Los Angeles extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population, Riverside Riverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River,[citation needed] it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, and is located approximately 60 miles east of Los Angeles-San Bernardino San Bernardino is a city located in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. One of the major cities of the Inland Empire region, it is the 18th largest city in California, and the 99th largest city in the United States, with a population of 207,832 as of 2009. The city spans 81 square miles. Though much of the, San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,977. The only consolidated city-county in California, it encompasses a land area of 46.7 square miles on the northern end of the San Francisco, Jacksonville Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida, and is the county seat of Duval County. The consolidation of the city and county governments in 1968, and a corresponding expansion of the city limits to include almost the entire county, placed the majority of Jacksonville's population within the city limits. As such it is the most, and San Jose San Jose (meaning St. Joseph in Spanish) or San José is the third-largest city in California and the tenth-largest in the United States. As the county seat of Santa Clara County, it is located in the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region commonly referred to as Silicon Valley. Once a small farming city, San Jose became a magnet for. By yearend 2010, 48 markets will be measured using the PPM. [1]
Financial Performance
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Top 9 of the Market Research Sector 2009
See also
- Nielsen ratings Nielsen ratings are audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States. Nielsen Media Research was founded by Arthur Nielsen, who was a market analyst whose career had begun in the 1920s with brand advertising analysis and (for television Television is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic ("black and white") or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission. The word is derived from mixed Latin programs)
- Time spent listening, one of the metrics measured
- List of United States radio markets
- Radio & Records Radio & Records was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It originally started out as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006, up until its final issue in 2009, periodical which published Arbitron data for commercial stations
- Radio Research Consortium, non-profit corporation which publishes Arbitron data for non-commercial stations
- The Media Audit
References
- ^ a b http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=ARB
- ^ "What We Do". Arbitron. http://www.arbitron.com/about/home.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
External links
- Arbitron Official website
- Ratings - Persons 12+ from Arbitron for commercial stations
- Ratings - Persons 12+ from FMQB for commercial stations
- Ratings - Persons 12+ from Radio and Records for commercial stations
- List of U.S. Radio Markets (ranked by size)
- Nationwide Radio Reference Guide
- DFWRadioArchives - contains historical Arbitron ratings data for Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
- Audio interview of Ernest H. Clay, ARB's Research and Production Director on WGN's discussion show Your Right To Say It
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All Access Music Group
Happy Birthday wishes on MONDAY (5/10) to arbitron's thom mocarsky, clear channel/Pittsburgh om david edgar, superspots/JBTV's david gariano, LEX & TERRY's ...
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hu, 28 Jan 2010 18:39:00 GM
Arbitron. is partnering with radio manufacturer Eton Corporation to send the solar powered-crank, multi-function radios to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. . Arbitron. President & CEO Bill Kerr says, Radio is the lifeline keeping ...
Q. I live in Michigan and would love to be able to look up the demographics of local radio and tv shows. Any help would be greatly appreiciated.
Asked by Who's Right - Tue Jan 8 14:09:23 2008 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. really can't be done...radio stations pay a boatload of money for the arbitron services and all information thereof...and they tend to keep that info very secret...
Answered by KENMAN - Thu Jan 10 13:21:07 2008
