Arbitron and Bonneville International Sign Multi-Year, Multi-Market Agreement for PPM software for radio programmers
COLUMBIA, MD; April 16, 2009 – Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) announced today that it has signed a multi-year, multi-market agreement with Bonneville International for a new software service for Portable People Meter ratings: PDA Web.
PDA Web is an online version of PD Advantage, a programming tool that tracks the top line view of stations’ performances with key audience metrics. Originally built for the diary service, this enhanced application now analyzes PPM radio ratings data. It allows radio station programmers to determine the station preferences of PPM respondents, when listeners are tuning in and tuning out, and to what stations they are going when they do tune out.
“PD Advantage is a Program Director’s Swiss Army Knife, designed to answer very specific questions about a station’s audience,” said Pierre Bouvard, EVP, Sales, Arbitron Inc. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and PDA Web gives PDs in PPM markets granular information about how their station’s metrics are trending.”
“The combination of PPM Estimates and PD Advantage Web will provide Bonneville with audience insights that help us make better programming decisions faster,” said Greg Solk, Vice President, Programming, Bonneville International. “With each new PPM market coming online, we are able to use what we’ve learned in LA, Chicago and DC and bring those programming enhancements online right away. Having the tools right out of the box for upcoming PPM markets will be invaluable.”
About Bonneville International Corporation
Founded in 1964, Bonneville International's heritage traces its early roots to KSL Radio, which first went on the air in May of 1922 (originally as KZN) in Salt Lake City, and to KSL-TV, which had its on-air debut in 1949. Bonneville International currently owns and operates 29 radio stations in the Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Phoenix, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Salt Lake City markets, as well as KSL 5 Television (NBC affiliate), online services, and operating divisions Bonneville Communications and Bonneville Satellite in Salt Lake City.
About the Portable People Meter
The Arbitron Portable People MeterTM system uses a passive audience measurement device – about the size of a small cell phone – to track consumer exposure to media and entertainment, including broadcast, cable and satellite television; terrestrial, satellite and online radio as well as cinema advertising and many types of place-based electronic media. Carried throughout the day by randomly selected survey participants, the PPMTM device can track when and where they watch television, listen to radio as well as how they interact with other forms of media and entertainment.
The PPM detects inaudible codes embedded in the audio portion of media and entertainment content delivered by broadcasters, content providers and distributors. At the end of the day, the meter is placed in a docking station that extracts the codes and sends them to a central computer. The PPM is equipped with a motion sensor, a patented quality control feature unique to the system, which allows Arbitron to confirm the compliance of the PPM survey participants every day.
PPM ratings are based on audience estimates and represent the opinion of Arbitron. PPM ratings, like all audience estimates however derived, should not be relied on for precise accuracy or precise representativeness of a demographic or radio market.
About Arbitron
Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is a media and marketing research firm serving the media – radio, television, cable, online radio and out-of-home – as well as advertisers and advertising agencies in the United States. Arbitron’s core businesses are measuring network and local market radio audiences across the United States; surveying the retail, media and product patterns of local market consumers; and providing application software used for analyzing media audience and marketing information data. The company has developed the Portable People MeterTM, a new technology for media and marketing research.
Arbitron’s headquarters and its world-renowned research and technology organizations are located in Columbia, Maryland, USA.
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Portable People MeterTM and PPMTM are marks of Arbitron Inc.
