Yesterday in Houston, PPM President Pierre Bouvard presented some very positive findings to broadcasters, agencies, advertisers, the Arbitron Advisory Council and the RAB's PPM Task Force-including: PPM has much less statistical bounce-it showed very consistent data across weeks and months; PPM liberates radio PDs from programming to top of the hour; PPM captures twice as many stations and listening occasions per person resulting in doubling of weekly reach. The PPM service also brings a new demo to radio, children 6-11

Over 100 media properties in Houston were recorded-all 16 TV stations, 40-50 cable nets and 40-50 radio stations. Cox and Radio One were not encoding and were not included.

"We're very pleased with the sample performance," said Bouvard. "We are in Houston as the confirmatory market prior to commercializing and launching PPM. We really wanted to put PPM through its paces in a highly diverse ethnic market. [We found] very good metrics for SPI-sample performance indicator-across sex, age, race, ethnicity. People complied with the task. They carried the device to the in-tab. We're very pleased with the compliance metrics."

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However, the 18-24 in-tab proportionality was a bit low. Plans are being initiated to improve compliance there.

As a result of PPM capturing twice as many listening occasions, as mentioned above, weekly reach, or cume has been doubled. However, "The majority of the time, the demographic and daypart rankings between PPM and the diary for radio are unchanged, said Bouvard. The PPM demo also determined radio is a Reach medium-see AdBiz section for the details there.

However, TSL is shorter. AQH ratings were are down by 20% compared to the diary (For ethnic groups-Black, Hispanic it was 25%, for White it was 15%), with morning drive taking the biggest hit-down 35%. Middays were also lower, down 21.9%. Bouvard blamed much of the loss to folks that spend 25+ hours per week with one radio station. 11% of the "heavy listening respondents" make up the diaries. PPM won't reflect what some could label those as inaccurate diary entries.

Bouvard also mentioned PPM may bring in a new golden age for programmers: "Consultants and programmers have said to us they are slaves to the top of the hour. If you look at Arbitron diaries, 50% of the entries begin at the top of the hour. And so PDs and consultants have said at the top of the hour, you've got to play your hit records-no talking, no commercials. We see that the top and bottom of the hour are more of a diary-keeping phenomenon. PPM shows people are listening throughout the day. So now programmers will do what they think is best for their audience without being married to the clock."

For television, Out-of-Home viewing for the first time has been presented with PPM. DVR households, were also identified, along with live vs. time-shifted viewing. Only 7% of households were watching time-shifted programs.

Highlights for television include:

* Out-of-home viewing contributes substantially to total viewing. Weekday results suggest an substantial "at-work" audience. Out-of-home viewing contributed 15% of the total audience to KTRK-TV (ABC); 14.3% to KHOU-TV (CBS); 11.6% to KXLN-TV (UNI); 14.7% to KRIV-TV (Fox); and 14.3% to KHWB-TV (WB).

* Stations ranked about the same under PPM versus the meter/diary: KTRK was ranked first under PPM and the Nielsen meter/diary service. KHOU moved up from third to second, KXLN fell to third. KRIV was fourth under both ratings services. KHWB moved up to #5 under the PPM. KPRC-TV (NBC) moved to #6.

* PPM shows higher AQH person ratings for all demos, channel types. The big four affiliate TV stations were up 15% among 18-49; Spanish-language broadcasters up 36%. Large cable networks were up 9%; Smaller and newer cable nets were up between 148% and 254%.

* Increases are largest in early morning, daytime and weekends.

* Black, Hispanic and Other sample all show large AQH person ratings gains

* The vast majority of time-shifted programs are viewed within the first 24 hours.

* About 9% of Houston PPM panelists live in households with Digital Video Recorders

* About 93% of TV viewing in DVR households is to original broadcast

* About 80% of time-shifted programs are viewed same day or next day.

* PPM reported the biggest out-of-home viewing for weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

RBR observation:
Almost all of the findings suggest what most at Arbitron and the buying community have told us-PPM is a more accurate measurement than diaries. Everything from the changes to top of the hour listening to number of stations listened to, to out of home viewing are all bearing out the realities of consumer (listener, viewer) behavior. If the measurement system for listening and viewing is more accurate, then planning and buying will be better targeted. What happens next? Higher ROI. Higher ROI will lead to more trust in radio, television and cable mediums. You want to compete more effectively against online? Strong, reliable data and higher ROI are the way.