PPMs show very different listening patterns
Don Day | December 17, 2009The New York Times has a great story on the impact portable people meters are having on radio ratings. Turns out, 10% fewer people listen to classical stations – 3% fewer to soft jazz, and 2.6% to talk radio. Yep – when PPMs are in use, the actual listening patterns are different than what people write in diaries.
“Yes, I really listen to classical radio a lot! Yes, I listen to Rush EVERY DAY!”
No, you don’t. But thanks for playing. What does better? Oldies, news and country. Seems people don’t admit to listening to country — but do more often than they report.
How do PPM’s pick up talk radio? By their imaging? Because how else would they be able to distinguish between that and normal talking?
Here, read this.
Scroll down to “Inaudible”.
@^%^
Here’s the link:
http://www.rwonline.com/article/356
Steve Dahl wrote an interesting opinion piece for the Chicago Tribune the other day in which he pointed out that PPM’s can’t distinguish between radio stations that you CHOOSE to listen to and ones that you are exposed to in, say, a doctor’s office. His conclusion was that such involuntary listening will inevitably hurt ratings for personality radio which typically isn’t on in places like waiting rooms. That, Dahl said, will result in owners moving even further away from putting personalities on the air.
But should we only rate based on what you WANT to listen to? I think if you’re listening to it, no matter why, they should get the rating. Unless you stay home all day, you are exposed to so much and so if a doctor wants to listen to a certain station, then that station should get the rating.
Could be my opinion though…I’m curious what everyone else thinks about that?
“I think if you’re listening to it, no matter why, they should get the rating.”
Well, maybe, but advertisers may feel that they shouldn’t pay as much for passive listeners as they do for ACTIVE listeners, for starters.
Not too many people actively listen to commercial spots. Plus, an active listener is more likely to change the station during a commercial break. You are stuck listening to whatever your doctor’s office happens to be playing. That kind of forced exposure and repitition is probably more useful for an advertiser. That is reason enough to include that kind of listening, in my opinion.
Some formats depend on engaging listeners. Public radio, Triple A, Modern Rock. These formats by nature will have lower mass but can be very worthwhile to the right audience and advertisers. PPM seems to short change them because these stations aren’t intended to be “background” music they’re lifestyle stations. And most of those target audiences are the ones least likely to carry PPM devices.