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BBM Canada First to Adopt Arbitron Portable People Meter for TV Ratings 07.21.04
Arbitron PPM to Replace Push-Button People Meters in Quebec and Montreal
NEW YORK, July 21, 2004 – BBM Canada, the Canadian industry consortium for audience ratings, has adopted the Arbitron (NYSE: ARB) Portable People Meter (PPM) as the official ratings system for buying and selling commercial airtime on French-language television in Quebec and Montreal.
The PPM-based television ratings service, which has been operating in parallel with the current ratings system in Canada’s second largest province since September 2003, will replace push-button people meters beginning in September 2004. BBM will completely phase out push-button people meters in the Quebec market by the end of the year. Arbitron’s Portable People Meter system uses a small, pager-sized audience measurement device to track broadcast, cable and satellite television viewing as well as radio listening.
“We congratulate the BBM Board of Directors for its overwhelming vote to adopt the PPM as the ratings service for the province of Quebec,” said Jay Guyther, senior vice president, Global PPM Marketing, Arbitron. “We believe, as they do, that this switch from push-button people meters to Arbitron’s passive audience measurement system is a big step forward for the quality of television ratings. Changing to any new measurement method inevitably raises questions and BBM has spent many months thoroughly and openly answering industry concerns about the transition, working with its members to ensure a smooth transition. BBM has closely tracked our research and development program since 1992. They know more about this system than anyone else in the world.”
“We believe the PPM is the only way we can keep pace with emerging media technologies and the changes in the viewing and listening habits of our television audiences,” said Jim MacLeod, president and chief executive officer, BBM Canada. “Soon, television meters will no longer do the job if they remain hardwired to receivers in panelist homes. We must go with the viewers to capture, passively and automatically, every exposure to a growing number of TV and media appliances found in and out of the home.”
The BBM’s decision to use the PPM data as the official television ratings came after a full year of rigorous testing and exhaustive discussions with all affected industry groups. The BBM was also among the first to conduct extensive analysis of audience data collected from parallel TV meter panels: one panel equipped with the passive PPM technology and the other equipped with push-button, set-top people meters.
In addition to conducting extensive data analysis, the BBM Board also formed a committee of its Quebec members who addressed the business issues of changing to PPM.
Earlier this year, the BBM Board of Directors voted unanimously to endorse the PPM as the technology of choice for electronic measurement. The Board has also noted that that there has been a demonstrated interest in adopting electronic measurement for radio in the future.
BBM is also examining the PPM as a potential radio audience measurement system in the province of Quebec. BBM has encoded all local Montreal radio stations, a total of 28, and is forming a local committee to look at the current methodology and the data provided by PPM. This committee will examine how to best utilize PPM technology in radio and draft recommendations on future uses of PPM by the BBM for radio audience measurement.
The BBM Board of Directors consists of members representing broadcasters–both radio stations and TV stations–as well as members representing buyers–both advertising agencies and advertising companies.
BBM Canada was one of the first ratings organizations to recognize the potential of the PPM acquiring exclusive rights to the technology in Canada in 1992. Following several successful field tests of the PPM in the U.K. and the U.S., BBM installed a 530 home PPM panel in the Quebec market last year.
While BBM Canada is the first ratings organization to deploy the PPM for television ratings, the PPM is being used in Belgium to measure Flemish radio and television audiences for programming and marketing applications. In addition, tests of the PPM have been conducted in more than 15 countries and commercial license agreements have been signed covering more than 30 countries.
About the Portable
People Meter
Arbitron’s Portable People Meter system uses a small, pager-sized audience
measurement device to track broadcast, cable and satellite television viewing
as well as radio listening. The PPM is carried throughout the day by survey
participants, tracking the television programs they watch and the radio stations
they listen to by detecting inaudible codes embedded by broadcasters. At the
end of the day, the meter is placed in a docking station that extracts the
channel codes and sends the audience data to a central computer. The meters
are equipped with a motion sensor that allows Arbitron to monitor the compliance
of the PPM survey participants every day—a quality control feature unique
to the Arbitron Portable People Meter in the realm of media research.
About
BBM Canada
BBM Canada is a not for profit tripartite industry organization owned and
governed by its 1,000 advertiser, agency, and broadcaster members. BBM has
served Canada
since 1944 with radio data, and since 1952 with television data. BBM provides
service to all markets in Canada. BBM also provides a wide range of software
programs for audience analysis and through its partnership with TNS. BBM
is located in Don Mills, Ontario with operations in Moncton, Montreal, Scarborough,
and Vancouver. Find out more about BBM at www.bbm.ca.
About Arbitron
Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is an international media and marketing research
firm serving radio broadcasters, cable companies, advertisers, advertising
agencies and outdoor advertising companies in the United States, Mexico and
Europe. Arbitron’s core businesses are measuring network and local
market radio audiences across the United States; surveying the retail, media
and product patterns of local market consumers; and providing application
software used for analyzing media audience and marketing information data.
The Company is developing the Portable People Meter, a new technology for
radio, television and cable ratings.
Arbitron’s marketing and business units are supported by a research and technology organization located in Columbia, Maryland. Arbitron has approximately 1700 employees; its executive offices are located in New York City.
Through its Scarborough Research joint venture with VNU, Inc., Arbitron also provides media and marketing research services to the broadcast television, magazine, newspaper and online industries.
PPM™ is a mark of Arbitron Inc.
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This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements regarding Arbitron in this document that are not historical in nature, particularly those that utilize terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “likely,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “believes” or “plans,” or comparable terminology, are forward-looking statements based on current expectations about future events, which Arbitron has derived from information currently available to it. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our results to be materially different from results implied in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include whether we will be able to:
Additional important factors known to Arbitron that could cause forward-looking statements to turn out to be incorrect are identified and discussed from time to time in Arbitron’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in particular the risk factors discussed under the caption “ITEM 1. BUSINESS – Business Risks” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K.
The forward-looking statements contained in this document speak only as of
the date hereof, and Arbitron undertakes no obligation to correct or update
any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise.
