Arbitron looking to grow cable biz

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Arbitron has been looking to build new revenue streams by applying its Portable People Meter (PPM) panels to other media besides radio. The company had kept quiet about signing a pretty significant television customer until it was disclosed this week in an article by MediaWeek. Turner Broadcasting has been using PPM to measure out of home (OOH) viewing of the Major League Baseball playoff games on TBS. It’s also planning to use PPM to measure OOH viewing of NBA games on TNT.


Gilford Securities analyst Jim Boyle asked in Arbitron’s Q3 conference call whether the company is working to sign other cable networks. “Certainly that would be our hope,” replied CFO Sean Creamer.

Creamer said the PPM data demonstrated what Turner had assumed – “that there was out of home viewing that was not being captured.” So, Turner is using the PPM OOH data in conjunction with its at home Nielsen numbers to demonstrate a larger audience to advertisers.

“So clearly we would hope that there would be more clients interested. In fact, we’re in conversations,” Creamer said.