[BC] Fractionalized Audiences with IBUZ and Internet Radio

[Mike McCarthy]

The PPM with it's monthly reports (no more books) and the ability to obtain 
weekly trends will certainly cause this model to be blown up by those who 
buy the highly inflated reports from Arbitron.  No more will the emphasis 
be placed going into the fall and spring books.  Its going to be 365 in 
those markets where the PPM is going to be used.  Stations which see droops 
in ratings during the summer might kick up their marketing a notch (AC 
stations for example) where as news/talk without sports teams may do the 
same during off-seasons (WGN-Cubs in the winter.)

One of the PPM failing points is the duration of panelists.  At a planned 2 
years max duration for a panelist, stations who make changes in the 
programming may or may not see any meaningful results in ratings since the 
panelists don't change in bulk to reflect changes in the marketplace.  2500 
panelists to reflect the listening of 8M people is simply not statistically 
valid.  Maybe 250K...or even 25K.

In so far as the internet, unless an audio source is being encoded or 
tracked by software, there is no possible way to model the listening of 
streams...anywhere.

MM

Snipped to comment on one specific point....

At 08:50 AM 10/22/2007 -0400, Rich Wood wrote

>Radio stations are, historically, reluctant to promote themselves on a 
>continuing basis, preferring to target important survey times. Even then 
>it's often a trade with TV or print.