MRC ACCREDITS PPM IN HOUSTON Katy Bachman – Mediaweek The Media Rating Council granted accreditation to Arbitron’s portable people meter radio ratings in Houston, Arbitron announced Monday (Jan. 29). A critical milestone in the death of the diary and the industry’s subsequent transition to electronic measurement, MRC accreditation also means radio stations will have little reason to oppose the PPM except for price.
Arbitron began the accreditation process about three years ago. It completed the MRC audit for the Houston service in January 2006. Since then, the MRC has been reviewing the audit and deliberating accreditation status.
“Obtaining MRC accreditation of the Houston PPM radio ratings data is a major accomplishment for the industry and for Arbitron. Users of the new PPM radio ratings currency in Houston, monthly data based on average quarter hour radio ratings, can have confidence that the radio methodology, sampling systems and survey processes that re the foundation of the PPM service have been independently and thoroughly audited and have met the very high standards of the Media Rating Council,” said Owen Charlebois, president of operations, technology, research and development for Arbitron.
Houston was originally scheduled to be the first market in Arbitron’s 50-market roll out of the PPM service in July 2006. Under pressure from radio broadcasters, Arbitron agreed it would not commercialize the PPM service in the market until it achieved MRC accreditation. Meanwhile, Arbitron decided to go ahead with commercialization of the PPM in Philadelphia, set to go live March 8 following a two-month demonstration period that began Jan. 11. PPM is set to become the currency in New York on Nov. 15, following a two-month demo period in that market.
Now that Houston is accredited, audits for Philadelphia and New York should not be as time consuming. “Because we’re using so much of the same PPM technology and methodology, it all does not have to be audited again,” said an Arbitron spokesperson.
When Houston will go live is still up for discussion, but it won’t be until after the Winter survey (Jan. 11 to April 4), and after Arbitron is able to convince some major groups to sign for the service. Unlike Philadelphia and New York, where Arbitron has signed more than half of the markets’ broadcasters, less than a quarter of the stations have signed for the PPM service in Houston.
Throughout the long Houston demonstration period, which began April 2005, Arbitron has faced strong opposition from Cox Radio and Radio One, which refused to encode their stations for the service. Only this past August did Radio One decide to encode.
Then there is the matter of Clear Channel, the nation’s largest radio group, which cut off PPM negotiations last summer stating that until Arbitron had MRC accreditation in Houston, there was nothing to talk about. Although CC encodes for Houston, it has refused to encode for Philadelphia. Unless it encodes, CC will not be included in the ratings. |