Our friends at TVBR.com wonder whether Arbitron’s announcement that it will begin to measure TV Out of Home viewing is tied to Nielsen’s recent announcement that it would begin a US radio measurment service, which has been Arbitron’s traditional turf.
Arbitron insists this isn’t retaliation for Nielsen launching a US radio measurement service, but rather a natural extension of PPM’s capabilities. Indeed, TV was included when Arbitron and Nielsen were jointly testing PPM in Houston. We wonder, though, whether Arbitron would have been hesitant to challenge the larger TV-focused ratings company if the giant hadn’t already invaded its turf.
Still, competition on both fronts (TV & Radio) are welcome. Just like multiple polls from different companies on the same topic.
Wasn’t this previously “Project Apollo”? (Maybe with a dash of leftover “Scan America”?)
Sorry for the very late post. I listen to the radio as much as I watch TV or use the computer,information about the radio ratings system, as far as the layman figuring out ( and by layman I could mean journalist or author ) is if anything worse than the Nielsen cable ratings info. I also wonder if this is a sign of health for the radio industry? Is the FCC really going to widen the audience to include more so-called liberal or more local minority viewpoinrts, more enterpreneurs operating outside the megacorporations like Clearchannel? And if so, why not break up other medis giants? These are all questions I’m sure induistry insiders are qsking and have been since the late nineties, even if the TV/Webheads find it boring.