WATCH AND LEARN Greg Diamond – ByrnesMedia Canadian broadcasters should be keeping a close eye on Houston and Philadelphia as those markets offer us the opportunity to gain valuable insight on what we can expect when BBM rolls out the Portable People Meter, next year.
It has already become evident that speed (as predicted) would be an immediate benefit for programmers – both the speed in which useful data is presented to the industry and the speed in which companies can move their ‘chess pieces’ in response.
For example, in Philadelphia, Clear Channel dumped an unsuccessful peripheral format, switched to Alternative, and within 3 months had the market’s #6 station overall.
Having the ability to see a positive result so quickly likely means that Philadelphia will have more format alterations. Should that occur and develop into an ongoing ‘format dance’, then the ensuing instability could actually have a negative effect on the market overall. Radio, after all, flourishes better in a more established environment, with only infrequent changes to keep top-of-mind awareness at an advantageous level. The longer view of this situation could become interesting.
The PPM has also given American broadcasters data to allow for a reconsideration of how many stopsets should be run each hour.
In Houston, it appears Clear Channel has decided to reduce stopsets on their entire FM cluster. According to Radio Business Report:
While research had already shown that ‘button-pushers’ were gone during the first spot and the majority of listeners stick with a station through the spots (provided the stopset is within a reasonable length), it is rewarding to see how PPM data is being used to justify an important programming change to a station’s client-base. This is an obvious benefit of the new technology.
The PPM has already altered our thinking with regards to quarter-hours. At present, most stations prefer to keep the first quarter ‘clean’ and ‘hit-hot’ since diary data has always shown it to be the heaviest reported. Yet, those with knowledge of how people fill out ballots have always doubted the reality of such results and the PPM has now dispelled it altogether – there is no discernable change between the quarters. This, in turn, removes the shackles from a programming standpoint and we will surely begin to see a rethink of hour construction with a much more balanced approach being taken.
The Portable People Meter has also shown how much greater a station’s Cume is and how much lower TSL really is when compared to diaries. This has already been noted extensively, but bears mentioning once more. Radio as a medium has a much larger audience (‘phantom cume’ is no longer an apparition), but listener loyalty is less than we thought (or hoped) with the number of stations sampled daily being greater than the diary-system had indicated. In many ways, marketing can often overshadow programming when unaided recall is the requirement for ratings success. The PPM, however, offers concrete reasoning as to why the emphasis needs to be on programming with marketing playing its important ancillary role. Appointment listening will be a vital element in a station’s success in a PPM environment as will a consistently high level of quality in a station’s music, personalities, etc. It is true that this last point is a given, but under a diary system such conclusions were, by necessity, assumptive.
Watching the conclusions arising from ratings results in Philadelphia and Houston has been a great learning experience to date, and it is safe to say that more lessons will be forthcoming. As we wait for the PPM rollout in Canada, use this time wisely and familiarize yourself with how this technology is reshaping radio for the listener and enhancing its relevance with the client. |