As Arbitron has botched the PPM’s, he writes, “... the failure of the industry to manage its own ratings and its ratings provider may (hopefully) bring major changes that are needed.
Radio, Henry says, needs to gain control of their relationship with Arbitron.
Who is the client? Why is the client paying ungodly sums to a provider whose net worth is now greater than most of the clients, because they’ve fleeced the industry? What is stopping the U.S. radio industry from creating a non-profit organization to manage a ratings consortium?He likes the PPM technology, but should start over with the sampling methodology.
Look north to Canada, where the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement is a non-profit controlled by the broadcasters.By the way, that very structure has created a healthy relationship with the ad community where they are part of the input and roll-out process, unlike the train wreck roll-out that occurred in the States.
As it stands now, Arbitron and PPM have seemingly exiled ad agencies, minority broadcasters, many politicians and any radio station that doesn’t program to the lowest common denominator (in a spin called ‘mainstream’).
Henry says the increased cost to stations of the PPMs, especially in the bad economy have “quickly separated the mainstream ‘haves’ from all other radio stations (the ‘have nots’). There are only so many mainstream positions in any market, and, as we all know, the traditional forms are all taken. How long will the ‘have nots’ pay for ratings that will never reward them?
{…] some broadcasters will choose to simply sell without ratings.”
Why do anything the Canadians or Europenas do for that matter...
1. Healthcare....their leaders come here for treatment
2. Taxes...strangled daily with GSTs, VATs and enromous income taxes
3. Olympics...oops
Posted by: Obama is a black man | February 24, 2010 at 02:20 PM