Arbitron cancels monthly PPM call

Faced with battling the Attorney General of New York in court and trying to convince the FCC to stay out of the Portable People Meter (PPM) controversy, Arbitron has canceled its monthly client and press call to go over PPM panel data and answer questions. The call had been scheduled for today, which was also to have been the day when September PPM data was released. That was moved up to Monday to ensure that New York AG Andrew Cuomo would not be able to get a court order barring the first currency release of PPM data in the New York market.

So, instead of the monthly call, Arbitron simply released this summary:

On average, across PPM markets for the September 2008 survey reports that released Monday, October 6, Arbitron is:

–Exceeding its Persons age 6 and older sample target by 8 percent;

–Exceeding its Persons age 18-54 sample target by 4 percent;

–Exceeding its Black Persons age 6 and older sample target by 15 percent;

–Exceeding its Hispanic Persons age 6 and older sample target by 21 percent; and

–Exceeding its Hispanic Spanish-Dominant sample target by 43 percent.

Among the Persons age 18-34 demographic, the average performance across the nine markets is 95 percent of the sample target. By race/ethnicity, Black Persons age 18-34 averaged 97 percent of target and Hispanic 18-34 averaged 112 percent of target.

The Houston market, which was affected by Hurricane Ike, will be issued as the three-week long survey report on October 8, so it is not included in these summaries.

Individual market breakouts of PPM sample metrics follow.

Designated Delivery Index or DDI is the actual sample size for a given demographic divided by the target sample size for the demographic (times 100.)  A DDI of 100 means that Arbitron achieved its sample target; a DDI of greater than 100 means that Arbitron exceeded its sample target.

** Population in indicated market too small to be reported

** Population in indicated market too small to be reported

Only six of the nine PPM markets reported qualify for Hispanic language weighting

About Designated Delivery Index

Designated Delivery Index or DDI is the actual sample size for a given demographic divided by the target sample size for the demographic (multiplied by 100.)  A DDI of 100 means that Arbitron achieved its sample target; a DDI of greater than 100 means that Arbitron exceeded its sample goal.

Arbitron “weights” its sample by age, sex, geography, race, ethnicity and language preference so that a demographic segment contributes to the tabulation of the audience estimates in the same proportion as the composition of the market.  Demographics that are below a DDI of 100 are “weighted up” to the sample target and vice versa.

Source: Arbitron