Arbitron is a
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
audience research company in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
which collects listener data on radio audiences similar to that collected by
Nielsen Media ResearchNielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
on television audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became bi-coastal by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s. ARB's initial business was the collection of television broadcast ratings exclusively.
ARB changed its name to Arbitron in the mid 1960s.
Arbitron is a
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
audience research company in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
which collects listener data on radio audiences similar to that collected by
Nielsen Media ResearchNielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
on television audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became bi-coastal by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s. ARB's initial business was the collection of television broadcast ratings exclusively.
ARB changed its name to Arbitron in the mid 1960s. The name came from the Arbitron System that was one of ARB's products; a central 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 collects data by selecting a random sample of a population in roughly 100 metros throughout the United States four times a year. An additional 200 markets are surveyed in the Spring and Fall. People in the sample are asked to maintain a written
diaryA diary is a record with discreet entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries undertaken for institutional purposes play a role in many aspects of human civilization, including government records , business ledgers and military records...
describing each radio program listened to. Each selected household agreeing to participate is provided a diary for each member aged 12 and older for one week, beginning on Thursday and ending the following Wednesday. At the end of the week, the completed diaries are returned to Arbitron by post.
A new random sample is selected to participate each week. Arbitron's surveys are broken down into four key ratings periods, roughly corresponding with the seasons and bearing their names. The term commonly used in the radio industry for these quarterly ratings is
Arbitron book, or more specifically, the
Spring book,
Fall book, etc. Arbitron also releases monthly information twice between the release of each book. These ratings, called
Arbitrends are labeled
Phase I and
Phase II. The Arbitrends, despite being mid-term indicators, reflect the entire three-month block leading up to them. Arbitron surveys listener habits from six a.m. to midnight from Monday through Sunday, 48 weeks per year. There is given a one week break following the
Spring book, and an additional three weeks break following
Fall book. 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
cumeIn 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 listeners over a period....
(the cumulative number of unique listeners over a period), average quarter hour (AQH - the average number of people listening every 15 minutes),
time 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....
, (TSL), and market breakdowns by demographic. Its important to understand that the CUME only counts a listener once, whereas the AQH can count the same person multiple times, this is how to determine the TSL. 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)
The seasonal books' 12+ ratings, a measurement of the overall number of people 12 and over listening to a particular station, are available as a free service for noncommercial use in most markets, except in cases where radio companies request an
embargoAn embargo is the prohibition of commerce and trade with a certain country, in order to isolate it and to put its government into a difficult internal situation, given that the effects of the embargo are often able to make its economy suffer from the initiative. It is similar to a blockade, as in...
. More detailed data, such as demographics and Arbitrends, are available only by paid subscription.
Portable People Meter
With the interest in the collection of more accurate ratings data, Arbitron has introduced the
Portable People MeterThe Portable People Meter or PPM, is a device developed by Arbitron to measure how many people are listening to individual radio stations and television stations, including cable TV...
(PPM). 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 meters for about a year. The audience estimates generated from each monthly survey is used as the buy/sell currency for radio stations and advertisers/agencies. The PPM is the currency in
HoustonHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2008 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of...
,
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth-most-populous city in the United States.In 2008, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over 1.4 million, while the metropolitan area's population of 5.8 million made it the country's fifth-largest...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Atlanta,
DetroitDetroit 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...
, Nassau-Suffolk (Long Island),
MiddlesexMiddlesex is a Borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 13,717....
-
SomersetSomerset is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located at the eastermost section within Franklin Township, in Somerset County, New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 23,040...
-
UnionUnion 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...
,
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
,
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality 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...
,
RiversideRiverside is the largest city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California, and is approximately 60 miles east of Los Angeles, and 12 miles southwest of San Bernardino. Riverside is the county seat of Riverside County, and is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River...
-
San BernardinoSan Bernardino, California is a large city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California.San Bernardino may also refer to:*San Bernardino of Siena , Italian priest, Franciscan missionary, and Catholic saint...
, San Francisco and San Jose. By 2010, 50 markets will be measured using the PPM.
http://www.arbitron.com/portable_people_meters/ppm_rollout.htm In 2006, Arbitron sued competitors
International DemographicsInternational Demographics is a privately-owned corporation based in Houston, Texas which collects listener data on radio audiences in the United States. It is a competitor to Arbitron but uses a different methodology in its data collection and tabulation...
and
IpsosIpsos S.A. is a global survey-based market research company headquartered in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 and has been publicly traded on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1 July 1999...
concerning 3 patents related to technology used by the Portable People Meter.
Top 10 of the Market Research Sector 2006
| Rank | Company | Sales in 2006
(million USD) | Growth in % |
|---|
>
| 1 |
Nielsen Company |
3,696.0 |
2.6 |
| 2 |
IMS Health Inc. |
1,958.6 |
8.9 |
| 3 |
Taylor Nelson SofresTaylor Nelson Sofres is a leading market research and market information group. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the firm was acquired by WPP Group in October 2008 for 1.6 billion pounds.-History:...
|
1,851.1 |
2.5 |
| 4 |
Kantar Group The Kantar Group, based in London, was founded in 1993 as the Market Research, Information and Consultancy Division of WPP Group plc, a London-based public company. It is a network of more than 20 specialist companies, with around 26,500 employees working in 80 countries across various research and...
|
1,401.4 |
4.1 |
| 5 |
GfK AG |
1,397.3 |
5.4 |
| 6 |
Ipsos Ipsos S.A. is a global survey-based market research company headquartered in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 and has been publicly traded on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1 July 1999...
|
1,077.0 |
6.5 |
| 7 |
SynovateSynovate is a market research firm owned by the Aegis Group. It was formed from the acquisition of a number of smaller market research firms. It has a number of different divisions, such as Synovate Healthcare, Synovate loyalty , Synovate Censydiam and Motoresearch...
|
739.6 |
9.5 |
| 8 |
IRI IRI may refer to:* International Roughness Index, a dimensionless quantity used for measuring road roughness, proposed as a world standard by the World Bank...
|
665.0 |
6.6 |
| 9 |
WestatWestat is an employee-owned research corporation serving agencies of the U.S. Government, as well as businesses, foundations, and state and local governments....
|
425.8 |
0.8 |
| 10 |
Arbitron |
329.3 |
5.9 |
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...
(for televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
programs)
- 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....
, 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 a 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 Consortium
The 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. Data is obtained through a contract with Arbitron...
, non-profit corporation which publishes Arbitron data for non-commercial stations
- The Media Audit, a similar company with different methodology.
External links