[BC] Fractionalized Audiences with IBUZ and Internet Radio

[Rich Wood]

------ At 09:13 AM 10/22/2007, Mike McCarthy wrote: -------

>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.

It's much more difficult to outfit a panelist with the electronics 
required than it is to simply mail a diary to different people each 
week. You're right. The entire system will be in an upheaval until 
everyone gets used to dramatically different methodology. 
Unfortunately, that throws out my hoped-for 5 book analysis of WGN 
and WGCI. With the playing field changed so dramatically there's no 
way to know what caused any change in listening until we know how to 
interpret the new results..

>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.

Assuming there's a revolution in listening caused by wireless 
broadband I wonder which of the tens of thousands of streams will get 
free encoders. I wonder if each of the SIRIUS and XM channels will be 
encoded to, finally, get an idea of which channels actually have audiences.

I have to assume Arbitron has considered this scenario and has enough 
encoders for everyone who wants one. With terrestrial radio it was 
about 14,000. Now we add Internet and satellite. Manufacturing will 
have to go into overtime.

Rich