Arbitron looks at PPM device vs. smartphones (audio)

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Sean CreamerSince the early days of the Portable People Meter (PPM) broadcasters and Wall Street analysts have been asking whether Arbitron will switch from using dedicated meters to placing PPM software on smartphones. With the new Arbitron Mobile firing up a US panel based on smartphones the topic surfaced again.


As Arbitron reported its Q1 financial results, it was noted in the quarterly conference call that recruiting for the new Arbitron Mobile panel is less expensive than recruiting for the company’s radio ratings services. That’s because the new mobile panel is created through an opt-in process, rather than recruiting a representative sample of the entire population. In fact, implementation of address-based recruiting, which replaced the old phone number-based sample, was cited as one of the reasons that cost were up in Q1.

But a software based solution to put virtual PPM meters on smartphones has long been viewed by many people outside Arbitron as a potential cost-saver over proprietary hardware. So, with Arbitron Mobile now doing measurement from smartphones, one analyst raised the PPM question again. Here’s the response from COO Sean Creamer (pictured):

[audio:Sean-Creamer-041912.mp3|titles=Sean Creamer]

Meanwhile, Arbitron has been focusing on using PPM for cross-platform measurement. CEO Bill Kerr noted that Arbitron delivered pilot data to the Coalition for Integrated Media Measurement in Q1 “again demonstrated the value that our unique, personal, passive and portable measurement technologies bring to the emerging marketplace of cross-platform.”

RBR-TVBR observation: As media platform definitions become increasingly blurred, with consumers just wanting to consumer the content they want wherever they happen to be on whatever device is handy, measurement companies have to figure out ways to count viewers/listeners any which way they can. This also means that measurement companies are likely to cross long-existing barriers and compete in the cross-platform world. So it could be interesting as Arbitron, Nielsen and others find themselves increasingly competing for business.