Arbitron
Encyclopedia
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States
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. The company's initial business was the collection of broadcast television 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.
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 interim 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. Major ratings products include cume
(the cumulative number of unique listeners over a period), average quarter hour (AQH Share
- 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).
(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 currently measured in thirty-three markets including: Houston
, Philadelphia
, New York
, Atlanta, Detroit, Long Island
, Middlesex
-Somerset
-Union
, Chicago
, Los Angeles
, Riverside
-San Bernardino
, San Francisco, Jacksonville, Baltimore
, and San Jose
. By 2010, 48 markets are being measured using the PPM.
http://www.arbitron.com/portable_people_meters/ppm_rollout.htm
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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. The company's initial business was the collection of broadcast television ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the 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...
.
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.
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 measurementAudience measurement
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
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 interim 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
Out-of-home advertising
Out-of-home advertising is made up of more than 100 different formats, totaling $6.99 billion in annual revenues in 2008 in the USA. Outdoor advertising is essentially any type of advertising that reaches the consumer while he or she is outside the home...
companies and the online radio industry. Major ratings products include cume
Cume
In the practice of measuring the size of US commercial broadcasting and newspaper audiences, cume, short for "cumulative audience," is a measure of the total number of unique consumers over a specified period....
(the cumulative number of unique listeners over a period), average quarter hour (AQH Share
AQH Share
-Definition:AQH is an abbreviation for Average Quarter-Hour Persons , defined by Arbitron as the average number of persons listening to a particular station for at least five minutes during a 15-minute period....
- the average number of people listening in a given 15-minute period), time spent listening
Time spent listening
Time spent listening is one of the measurements surveyed by Arbitron in determining ratings for radio stations in the U.S.. The TSL is the amount of time the average listener surveyed spent listening to each radio station at one time, before changing the station or turning it off.The TSL is an...
, (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 MeterPortable People Meter
The Portable People Meter is a system developed by Arbitron to measure how many people are listening 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...
(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 currently measured in thirty-three markets including: Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Atlanta, Detroit, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, 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 are mainly suburban...
, Middlesex
Middlesex, New Jersey
Middlesex is a Borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 13,635.Middlesex was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 9, 1913, from portions of Piscataway Township, based on the results...
-Somerset
Somerset, New Jersey
Somerset is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located at the easternmost section within Franklin Township, in Somerset County, New Jersey. At the 2000 United States Census, the CDP population was 23,040...
-Union
Union County, New Jersey
Union County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 536,499. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Elizabeth. Union County ranks 93rd among the highest-income counties in the United States. It also ranks 74th in...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Riverside
Riverside, California
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, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
-San Bernardino
San Bernardino
San Bernardino, California is a large city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California.San Bernardino may also refer to:-Landforms:*San Bernardino , a torrent that flows through the Italian province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola...
, San Francisco, Jacksonville, Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, and San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. By 2010, 48 markets are being measured using the PPM.
http://www.arbitron.com/portable_people_meters/ppm_rollout.htm
See also
- Nielsen ratingsNielsen RatingsNielsen ratings are the 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...
(for televisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
programs) - Time spent listeningTime spent listeningTime spent listening is one of the measurements surveyed by Arbitron in determining ratings for radio stations in the U.S.. The TSL is the amount of time the average listener surveyed spent listening to each radio station at one time, before changing the station or turning it off.The TSL is an...
, one of the metrics measured - List of most-listened-to radio programs
- List of United States radio markets
- Radio & RecordsRadio & RecordsRadio & 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.-History:The company was founded in 1973 and...
, periodical which published Arbitron data for commercial stations - Radio Research ConsortiumRadio Research ConsortiumThe Radio Research Consortium is a non-profit research company based in Olney, Maryland which provides listener data on radio audiences to non-commercial stations in the United States...
, non-profit corporation which publishes Arbitron data for non-commercial stations - The Media Audit
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