Arbitron is going high tech with their portable people meter rolling out a replacement for the 80’s-like pager-looking device with hardware that uses cell phone technology.

The new wireless PPM 360 technology will use a cellular network to collect data from Arbitron’s Portable People Meter (PPM) panel. PPM ratings using the existing cradle technology will be available in 50 markets for the Summer 2010 book.

“We have multiple solutions for data capture and retrieval,” says Arbitron spokesperson Jessica Benbow. “While this version is on a cell phone delivery system, the existing PPM technology retrieves data from the meter through a docking station and sends it to Arbitron through a landline or a cell modem depending on status of the household and the availability of cell coverage. That system will remain intact simultaneously as this system is deployed.”

Arbitron’s president says the enhanced PPM will liberate audience measurement from the home and make it easier to follow the mobile consumers. “This platform is designed to be an integrated component to our existing radio services and drive future innovation for media measurement,” says William Kerr, Arbitron President and CEO.

Arbitron has decided to keep the name of the cell phone carrier secret. Rollout plans for PPM 360 will be announced after field testing of the new system concludes at the end of 2010.

The New York Times will receive $45 million in the deal with $33.5 million coming from Univison and $11.5 million from WNYC. Comments on the RadioInsight blog estimate that WNYC’s acquisition price is about 1/4 of what a similar NYC FM radio stations would normally fetch.

In a challenging economic climate for newspapers and commercial radio, Spanish and public radio appear are thriving and expanding. The New York Times described the deal: “Faced with losses brought on by a deep advertising slump, the Times Company has been cutting costs across all of its operations, including the flagship Times newspaper. This year it negotiated union concessions on wages and benefits at The Boston Globe, and closed a wholesale newspaper and magazine distribution subsidiary.”

WNYC says they plan to continue WQXR’s two most listened-to live programs – Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and The Philharmonic This Week.

“[WNYC] has been trending away from the standard presentation of classical music or concert music, ” says the New York City Eye blog. Comments on RadioInsight speculate that WNYC will change to a 24/7 NewsTalk format with music programming moving to WQXR.

The DownWithTyranny blog notes the NYT has owned WQXR since 1943 and that ironically, the dwindling classical music format was once the dominate programming on FM radio. The Times sold WQXR-AM to Disney in 2006.

Sources: RadioInsight, NYT, WNYC, New York City Eye,  DownWithTyranny

This article also appears on the NyackNewsAndViews.com community news site.

The undersecretary for the Bureau of Retirement On Key Entitlements says the former head of NASDAQ brings unique qualifications to the job. “We’re in bad shape,” says Les Funds. “By 2017, Social Security will be paying out more than we take in. We need someone with a ‘magic touch’ to grow the system while still allowing us to burn the candle at both ends.”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that putting Madoff in charge of Social Security is either a publicity stunt or a good example of government learning from the private sector. Bloomberg told WNYC’s radio audience last January that “Madoff’s isn’t the biggest ponzi scheme ever. – that’s social security.” When asked to comment on today’s announcement, Bloomberg rolled his eyes and said he’s running out of political parties to quit.

Editor’s Note: This post was first created as a submission to the New York Public Radio outlet WNYC for a Satire Slam! on 4/28. It was selected as a semi-finalist in that competition.

A Ball State University and Sequent Partners study commissioned by the Nielsen funded Council For Research Excellence reports computer usage has replaced radio as the No. 2 media activity. The finding is consistent across big and small markets — unaffected by longer commuting times which should favor radio’s morning and afternoon drivetime dayparts. Print ranks fourth.

The study includes some predictable news, too: despite the growth of streaming media, TV is still the way most people consume their video.

Ball State observers recorded media consumption in :10 increments for traditional television,  computer,  mobile devices and “all other screens” (including display screens in out-of-home environments, in-cinema movies and other messaging and even GPS navigation units). The study recorded 750,000 minutes of usage over 952 days. Researchers used a handheld smart keyboard equipped with a custom media collector program to collect media exposure data.

Source: Council For Research Excellence

Aren’t there enough Death Stars To Go Around? Charlie Ergen and John Malone are fighting over Mel Karmazin’s toys. And these media big boys like this don’t like to share. Sirius / XM, boasting a stock price which will get you about 100 shares for that GW bill in wallet, is close to bankruptcy. Echostar’s Charlie Ergen has been buying up Sirius debt which which comes due this week. Rumor has it that Charlie and Mel don’t get along. Now, John Malone and Liberty Media is offering $530 million in loans in exchange for a 40 percent of ownership via convertible prefered stock. Sources: RBR,  MediaPost, MultiChannel News, NYT 2/18/09

Death of Rabbit Ear TV This Week. Or Not: On Tuesday, 421 TV stations turned off their analog signals. Feb 17th is the day when analog broadcasting was supposed to an end in the US. But it was extended by Congress because there was a backlog of coupon requests. Because new coupons can’t be issue until old one expire. The NAB says Nielsen’s analog only home count is too high. TV stations have the option of switching off their VHF and UHF signals anytime between now and June. The only thing that is assured is that you aren’t the only one who is confused.

RBR published a list of markets that are now all digital.

The photo to the right shows rabbit ears on sale last week in a dollar store in the Miami area. What’s the story with that? Sources:  NYT 2/19/09,  Google/AP

Google Radio is Dead: Google is pulling the plug on it’s radio division. This follows a decision to exit the print business. Google’s radio effort combined technology purchased from dMarc Broadcasting with the auction capabilities of Google Ad Words. No doubt radio’s faithful are singing Halleluah’s about turning back the virtual attack of the Internet mongol hordes. But with the collapse of XM Sirius and the ad sales business being as weak as it is, doesn’t this say more about the state of the radio business than it does Google’s effort to break in? Source: MediaBuyerPlanner, SiliconValleyInsider

Nielsen Unplugs Connect: Jon Mandel has quietly departed Nielsen Connect as its president and Nielsen is closing the operation of this division (for anyone who has ever heard Mr Mandel speak, the irony speaks for itself).  Sources: Ad Age, Mediapost

MyNetwork TV Exists Network Business. Sort Of: The 6th Network, formed when the WB and UPN merged, is transforming itself into a distribution channel for TV stations. Sounds like a PBS member-station model but without upscale content. Why don’t they just cut to the chase and call it the AllWrestlingChannel? Source: TVWeek

For the first six months of 2008, MonitorPlus commercial expenditures are down 10 perent across all media. The biggest losers by dollars were Spot TV (-7%), Network TV (-10%), and National Magagines (-23%). Network Cable showed a small increase at 5 percent. Spot Radio and Newspapers also took big hits, dropping 23% and 32% respectively.

GM’s Jan-July spending is down six percent with Ford and Chrysler both slashing media expenditures by  22 percent. Honda was up 13 percent and Toyota was flat.

Source: Nielsen MonitorPlus

Nielsen, capitalizing on radio frustrations with Arbitron, will introduce a syndicated service to measure 50 small and mid-sized radio markets ranked 100 and higher in Spring 2009.  Cumulus and Clear Channel have already signed up for the new service. The new service will be tested this December with full measurement in March/ April with data release in August 2009.

The new service will uses a sticker diary and offers an Internet based “EDiary” as an alternative to paper data collection.   The sticker diary, a regular paper diary with a list of stations printed on adhesive stickers, is used by Nielsen in other countries for radio measurement. “The panelist just peels off the sticker and puts it on the diary,” says Nielsen spokeperson Gary Holmes.  “This helps improve response rates.”

The EDiary will be offered as an online alternative to the paper diary in 2010 to make the task more appealing to younger demos. “We will be offering all respondents an EDiary, which is an online version of the pen and paper instrument” says Lorraine Hadfield, Nielsen’s Managing Director of International Audience Measurement who will head up the U.S. radio survey. “We know that certain demographics are more comfortable online and this will give respondents an option.” Hadfield, who previously managed Nielsen’s outdoor research operations and currently runs Nielsen’s global radio business, will have separate operational support for the new initiative.

Once Partners, Then Frenemies, now…?

Arbitron and Nielsen were PPM partners in a joint venture until 2006 when Nielsen pulled out of the venture after tests in Philadelphia and Houston. Although Nielsen cited research shortcomings as a justification for the breakup, they have since teamed up with IMMI as an alternative source for out-of-home TV viewing data, jilting Arbitron’s well tested and partially MRC approved active encoding technology for IMMI’s un-vetted passive smart-phone service. Nielsen and IMMI quietly suspended their business last week citing the weak economy.

It’s always been blood sport among radio clients to boast how much they hate Arbitron, and having Nielsen enter the arena is tantamount to turning a Radio Advertising Bureau conference into a reality show. “Any and all competition is a good thing,” says one top 25 markets operations manager. “Arbitron is telling us our rates may go up 50% with PPM in September 2009.  Nielsen will have instant credibility with the agencies, where a smaller firm might have taken years to be currency,” he says.

Nielsen says no further details are available at this time about the EDiary. Arbitron might be able to offer Nielsen a few pointers, having tested electronic diaries extensively and concluding that response rates were worse than with paper diaries. Arbitron subsequently pulled the plug on further testing.

Competition is good but it doesn’t always create better research. “It’s lunacy that the pioneers of metered measurement are claiming that a diary  — even if it is an electronic diary — is a better way to measure radio,” says one veteran TV and radio researcher. Although EDiaries might be less expensive, Arbitron’s PPM — adding on to Nielsen’s household and local people meter experience — proved that consumers can’t be trusted to accurately recall content to which they have been exposed. Although ethnic broadcasters are frustrated with the lower AQH numbers delivered by the PPM, they secretly must be pleased that electronic measurement shows higher cume audiences for urban stations. All of this implies that consumers are likely to use the diary to “vote” for their favorite stations — overstating average listening — while electronic measurement uncovers additional listeners the diary doesn’t report leading to higher unduplicated audiences.

Nielsen says the initiative is a challenge by Cumulus and Clear Channel to the “status quo to [create] new ways to measure this enduring medium.” A Nielsen email to software system providers and partners says

After extensive discussions and thorough internal consideration, we decided Nielsen could meet their needs by leveraging our international experience in radio measurement and integrating it with our broad background in measurement science. Indeed, given our expertise measuring radio globally, we already have significant systems, infrastructure and personnel in place to hit the ground running on this new service.

Cumulus, which signed a long term contract with Arbitron several years ago guaranteeing improvements in Arbitron’s small market diary service, sent out an RFP in April seeking alternative vendors after Arbitron decided to pay contract penalties instead of providing the promised improvements. Arbitron has been responding but it might be too late and too late to appease Cumulus.

At last July’s Arbitron Radio Advisory Council session, Arbitron President Steve Morris noted “rising client frustration with sample quality.” Arbitron Research VP Dr. Ed Cohen spoke to the council about efforts to improve young adult proportionality by improving participation of the 16 percent U.S. respondents who only have cell phone-only respondents, whom Cohen cited as a principal reason that young person representation has fallen over the past four years.

One Step Up — Two Steps Back?

There’s also a bit of irony in the Nielsen announcement. As part of the TV ratings’ monopoly’s A2/M2 initiative, they have committed to doing away with paper-based measurement using a “mailable meter” instead. So it’s a little weird that Nielsen is turning to a technology that does a poor job capturing TV viewing to measure radio listening. In the long run, this may even help Arbitron, letting them withdraw from low margin diary measurement markets to focus on more lucrative PPM and top 100 radio markets. Nielsen’s 50 market strategy includes markets ranked 104 through 206.

Radio executives welcome the competition while still being cautious about Nielsen’s retro-data collection technology.  “A one-time-a-year, two-month survey takes radio back to the 1960s and 1970s,” Arbitron former VP Bob Michaels told AllAccess. “During the ’60’s and ’70s, radio stations would ‘hype’ the one-month, once-a-year survey with crazy contesting and giveaways.” Radio Arbitrends and quarterly measurement lessened that impact when those tools were introduced in the early 1980’s.

There’s also concern that going less from Nielsen will be better than more from Arbitron. “Stations used to be in a book for 24 weeks — now you will only have eight weeks,” says Chuck DuCoty, COO of NRG Media and former chairman of Arbitron’s Radio Advisory Council. “Will this be acceptable to agencies? At a time when agencies are demanding more accountability, is this a positive step for the radio industry?”

Sources: Nielsen, RBR, MediaPost, Radio and Records, Arbitron, Cumulus, CabRadio blog, AllAccess

New York — July 28, 2013: Google (GOOG) announced that they will acquire the assets of the bankrupt satellite radio company, Sirius-XM. That company was formed almost five years ago when the FCC approved the merger of the original companies at the end of July 2008.

Rumors of the acquisition have swirled for months, with the most recent tease being posted on the Google blog last Thursday. “Something big is in the offing. Look to the skies!”

Analysts have been predicting that Google would seek a telecomm partner to expand the reach of its Android cell phone operating system offering more bandwidth than carriers like Sprint, VerATTizon (formed by the October 2010 merger of Verizon and ATT) and Microsoft (whose acquisition of COMCAST is still pending). Google is expected to make an announcement of their Android upgrade, which will include 10 MBit speed, 100 audio and video channels and free calls within North America. The new ad supported service will show ads related to the content of each consumer’s call on the Android receivers Hi-Def 6 inch wide letterbox screen.

In their five year history, Sirius-XM was never able to dig out of the regulatory hole dug for them by the second Bush Administration’s FCC and Justice departments despite generous incentives and creative promotions. In 2009, Sirius-XM offered 10 free ad-suporrted channel to woo back subscribers who had equipment pre-installed in their cars but who had cancelled their satellite subscriptions. Despite high profile entertainment events and celebrity tie-ins, but merged service never took off. “It’s an iPod, iPhone entertainment universe,” said analysts Geoff Gadfly of Schenectady-Sasquatch Consulting. “Why would someone want to pay for satellite radio when they have all of those features on their iDevice?

See also: Orbitcast, Seeking Alpha, Engadget, FCC, Broadcasting/Cable, NAB

This plan also includes improvments for the 18-34 benchmark which increases to 75 percent effective with the first currency report. The current 70 percent standard for this demo is effective with the fourth month after currency.

This announcement was made after the Arbitron Radio Advisory council was briefed on the company’s plans at their July meeting.
Source: Arbitron

Nielsen has designs on measuring all media consumption. Nielsen has labeled this “Follow the Video.” Perhaps they should call it “Follow the Audio.”

The ratings juggernaut has put in place measurement technologies that follow three screens – TV, internet & mobile. Now comes word that Nielsen will release out-of-home data later this summer through a joint venture with a company called IMMI. This technology from IMMI is similar to Arbitron’s PPM. Panelists will carry a specially-designed cell phone with them wherever they go. This cell phone is completely passive and collects audio fingerprints from all media sources. The audio signals are then uploaded to a central site and compared to a master database of all audio sources.

Does this mean we are really back to one screen? This smart cell phone screen? Can audio rule the day versus video? Can audio fingerprints truly be matched to all possible audio fragments in a given market? I think the overriding question is: Does this work?

This technology will not be accredited by the MRC at launch. Some other impediments include:

• IMMI’s sample is ages 13-54. so, Kids & Tweens 2-12 will not be included, nor the huge 55+ demographic. So this is not exactly representative.
• All panelists must use the IMMI “smart phone” as their ONLY phone. One can not use a landline phone or one’s own cell phone for day-to-day use. This will take a lot of convincing for people to give up their own cell phones. What about ringtones?
• Respondents carry the smart phone with them all of the time, in their pockets and their pocketbooks. Can this miracle device hear and identify every audio source in a market amid the cacophony of everyday noise and audio distractions?

Is this technology sound and ready for prime time? Well, at least we know it’s “sound.”

See also: Cynopsis Weekender, July 2007: Here, There And Everywhere