Christmas music a hit with office workers

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Not only did an AC station playing Christmas music, KOIT-FM, displace News/Talk KGO-AM from the top spot in the “Holiday” month PPM ratings in San Francisco, most of the encoded Internet streams that met Arbitron reporting minimums for the month were playing Christmas music wall-to-wall. Meanwhile, with 14 markets now up and running with PPM and 19 more set to launch this year, Arbitron is staggering its PPM data delivery dates.


Friday’s client/press call – delayed due to technical problems on Wednesday – was the first in several months, since Arbitron had suspended the calls while battling in court with the Attorneys General of New York and New Jersey. With that litigation settled, lots of people from new PPM markets were participating in the call for the first time, so there was lots of time spent on review of basic PPM metrics.

One participant asked if all markets where PPM is now currency are accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC). No, only Houston and, most recently, Riverside-San Bernardino. But Beth Webb, VP, PPM Research, noted that all markets have had MRC audits completed prior to commercialization. Arbitron has been pointing with pride to the MRC accreditation in Riverside-San Bernardino as proof that the “Radio First” recruiting methodology can satisfy the MRC, even as it works to win accreditation in markets where PPM has been in use longer, such as New York and Philadelphia. “Accreditation is not an end point,” Webb stressed, saying Arbitron remains committed to making improvements in Riverside-San Bernardino as well as all other PPM markets.

Up until now, PPM data for all markets has been released on the same day. But that’s changing next month, since there are so many markets operating and more on the way. The plan is to spread release of weekly data over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and monthly data over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Check with Arbitron to find out which days you’ll be getting data for your market(s).

What did we miss out on from the Wednesday conference call snafu? Well, new Arbitron CEO Michael Skarzynski was supposed to be on the call Wednesday, but his schedule didn’t allow for him to participate on Friday. So we’ll likely get to hear from him on the February 25th call.

The number of PPM-encoded digital radio streams is growing. Arbitron reports a total of 546 in the 14 markets for the Holiday report, up from 287 in 11 markets back in July. That tally includes HD2 and HD3 over-the-air stations, but mostly the Internet streams of AM, FM and HD stations.

Eleven Internet streams met minimum reporting standards of a 0.495 Persons 6+ Cume Rating for the Holiday book. All but one were streams of FM stations and most were in Christmas Music formats for much of the period. Most of the Internet listening is during working hours, so it appears there was plenty of Holiday cheer in offices.

Digital streams that “made the book”
Holiday 2008 PPM survey period – December 11, 2008-January 7, 2009

 

Persons 6+

Market

Station

 

Cume Rating

AQH Share

New York

WHTZ-IF

0.5

0.1

Nassau-Suffolk

WCBS-IF

0.5

0.2

Middlesex-Somerset-Union

WFAN-IA

0.6

0.1

Los Angeles

KOST-IF

1.2

0.5

Chicago

WLIT-IF

1.2

0.3

Houston

KILT-IF

0.5

0.1

 

KODA-IF

0.8

0.2

Atlanta

WVEE-IF

0.5

Philadelphia

WBEB-IF

1.1

0.3

Washington, DC

WASH-IF

1.1

0.2

San Jose

KOIT-IF

1.0

0.2

Source: Arbitron