Back to description of Total Line Reporting Initiative
Effective Winter 2006, Arbitron will begin offering Simulcast Total Line Reporting to stations that simulcast all content 100% throughout the survey. This upgrade of Arbitron’s simulcasting guidelines will be available in all syndicated markets in the United States. The following Q&A may prove helpful in assisting stations to select the most appropriate options and may provide helpful information to all report users.
Q: What is Simulcast “Total Line Reporting”?
A: Stations that simulcast 100% will be able to have their combined listening reported under a single set of call letters in all of Arbitron’s local market services—without individual stations being reported.
Q: What if the stations simulcast almost everything, but not quite 100%?
A: The stations must simulcast all content 100%—including commercials, sports, public affairs programming, etc. If each combo were to be granted a different exception, report users wouldn’t be able to have confidence that the audience estimates represent the combined listening of all the stations in the combo.
Q: Will stations still be limited to two-station simulcasts, as they have been in the past?
A: No. We will be able to accommodate three-way simulcasts, four-way simulcasts, etc.
Q: Will Total Line Reporting be available for ArbitrendsSM?
A: The first estimates reflecting Total Line Reporting will be Winter 2006 quarterly estimates. Thereafter, Total Line Reporting will be applied to Arbitrends reports as well. Fall 2005 estimates will be reported under our current guidelines.
Q: Who decides which call letters the combo’s estimates will be reported under?
A: The combo chooses which station in the partnership will be the “primary” station. All estimates will be reported with that station’s call letters.
Q: How will a subscriber know which stations have chosen Total Line Reporting?
A: We will post that information on a special Web site that will be operational by March 2006. The information will also appear on the "Special Notices" page of Radio Market Reports.
Q: What if a combo doesn’t want its estimates combined?
A: Total Line Reporting is completely voluntary. If the combo wants to see individual station estimates, it should not request Total Line Reporting.
Q: Are there any potential disadvantages to Total Line Reporting for a combo that wants its estimates combined?
A: For a combo’s first survey with Total Line Reporting, prior survey trends will be those of the primary station only.
For example: If WAAA and WBBB begin Total Line Reporting for Spring 2006—and WAAA is chosen as the primary station—estimates for Spring 2006 will reflect combined listening to WAAA and WBBB, but prior-survey trends will reflect listening only to WAAA. A four-book average would average four surveys of listening to WAAA and one survey (Spring 2006) of listening to WBBB. The combo will begin building combined trends, however, so by Winter 2007, the four-book average would reflect the average of four surveys of WAAA listening and four surveys of WBBB listening.
Q: Why won’t prior-survey trends be available for the combo immediately?
A: Every individual station is assigned a unique code that computer software associates with that particular station. In the above example, WBBB’s listening for Spring 2006 will be “flipped” to WAAA after diaries have been credited but before any audience estimates have been processed. From the perspective of the software that processes audience estimates, all of the listening to both stations will be associated with WAAA. The software will read WAAA’s unique computer code and retrieve WAAA’s prior-survey trends. Since there will be no current-survey estimates reported under WBBB’s call letters, however, the software won’t be reading WBBB’s unique computer code, and therefore won’t be retrieving WBBB’s prior-survey trends from before Spring 2006.
Q: What if a combo that requests Total Line Reporting changes its mind?
A: If we haven’t begun processing audience estimates for the survey, we can change the combo’s status from simulcast to nonsimulcast. Once the estimates are combined, however, it will not be possible even for Arbitron to view the individual station estimates for that survey.
Q: What about changing status from Total Line Reporting one survey to individual station reporting the next survey?
A: Stations can certainly do that. Any non-primary station in the combo, however, will have to begin building trends again to get a multibook average, and the only prior-survey trends for non-primary stations will be for surveys in which the stations weren’t treated as simulcast.
For example, assume that primary station WAAA and partner WBBB are reported as nonsimulcast for Winter 2006, then choose Total Line Reporting for Spring 2006, and revert back to individual station reporting for Summer 2006. In the Summer 2006 book, WAAA and WBBB will be reported as individual stations for Summer 2006. There will be no prior-survey trends for WBBB for Spring 2006, however, and no four-book average will be published for WBBB.
Q: What happens if the simulcast partners are home to adjacent markets?
A: Estimates will be reported under the call letters of the same station (the primary station) in each market in which the combo meets Minimum Reporting Standards. If the primary station is home to the Metro, the estimates will be listed “above-the-line,” as home to the Metro. If the primary station is not home to the Metro, estimates will be listed “below-the-line,” as outside the Metro.
Q: Will the current simulcasting rules remain in effect for stations that simulcast less than 100%?
A: No. Total Line Reporting will replace the “old” simulcasting guidelines.
Q: Where can I go for additional information?
A: Additional information—including a detailed table demonstrating how prior-survey trends and multibook averages apply to Total Line Reporting—is available in the description of the Total Line Reporting Initiative. You may also address inquiries to Dave Willinski at Arbitron in Columbia, MD, by calling (410) 312-8396 or via e-mail at dave.willinski@arbitron.com. Please include your name and phone number with any e-mail inquiries.
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