Detailed Ratings

Is there a place online to look at the Arbitron numbers in greater detail than the basic 6 AM- 12 AM 6+ type of figures like you can see on this sight? Nothing sketchy or illegal, please. And nothing that I have to prove who I am, because I'm nobody.

LauderDave said:

Is there a place online to look at the Arbitron numbers in greater detail than the basic 6 AM- 12 AM 6+ type of figures like you can see on this sight? Nothing sketchy or illegal, please. And nothing that I have to prove who I am, because I'm nobody.

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Arbitron only releases the 6+ PPM or 12+ Diary data for 6-Midnight for subscribing stations. Subscribers are prohibited by their contracts from giving out anything more except in the course of making legitimate sales presentations to advertisers.

Anything you find online beyond this is a violation of the Arbitron copyrights.

That's what I expected. We need someone with the courage of Neil Rogers to read them line for line on the air. It makes me wonder if Neil was in violation of Arbitron copyrights when he did that.

I'm very disappointed with Arbitron ratings as Arbitron has decided to exclude stations from the list if they fail to subscribe to their service. So in markets like Atlantic City, NJ only about half of the local stations show up in the ratings because the other stations refuse to pay for the service.

This means you're not getting a true picture of where stations stand in the market. It is very likely that the true #1 station in the market isn't listed in the ratings. In this particular market stations not included in the ratings are those owned by Longport (I think there are five- including a 50,000 Watt Flame-thrower), Coastal (two stations), WIBG AM/FM, and possibly one or two others.

What value can be placed on a ratings service that fails to acknowledge at least 50% of the stations in the market?

The same value that was placed on the ratings before the decision. Again, anyone who buys the ratings gets the full picture. It is only observers (who aren't supposed to use the ratings for advertising decisions anyway) who are affected by the policy change.

josh said:

I'm very disappointed with Arbitron ratings as Arbitron has decided to exclude stations from the list if they fail to subscribe to their service.

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You really mean that you are disappointed that you no longer get for free a look at how a market is performing.

What value can be placed on a ratings service that fails to acknowledge at least 50% of the stations in the market?

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Answer: the same value as always. Stations and agencies that subscribe to the ratings service see all stations, irrespective of whether they are subscribed or not, are commercial or not or even local or not. They pay, they get the data.

You obviously don't pay. So you don't get to see the data. Think of what Arbitron releases as sort of like movie previews; you get a hint of the movie, but you have to pay to get the whole thing.

David, then they should promote it like that to the media when they release the information. It should be promoted as "these are not the real ratings and should not be interpreted as such." Instead we're just providing you with bit and pieces. To get the actual ratings you will have to pay a minimum of $ 10,000 or more depending on your market, etc.

Local newspapers that publish the nonsensical press release information should preface it by stating, these are not actual ratings . Maybe by stating that, the editor of the local paper will realize there is no value to printing the information and remove it altogether as it well should be.

josh said:

David, then they should promote it like that to the media when they release the information. It should be promoted as "these are not the real ratings and should not be interpreted as such." Instead we're just providing you with bit and pieces. To get the actual ratings you will have to pay a minimum of $ 10,000 or more depending on your market, etc.

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In the larger markets, the cost for PPM per station is in the 6-figure range.

In any event, Arbitron sends 6+ or 12+ numbers to media affiliates that have signed an agreement after requesting to be put on the distribution list; press releases are not wildly sent to any Tom, José or Hao who asks for them.

The data sent is clear labeled as representing only the stations that are subscribed.

Local newspapers that publish the nonsensical press release information should preface it by stating, these are not actual ratings . Maybe by stating that, the editor of the local paper will realize there is no value to printing the information and remove it altogether as it well should be.

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The data which is requested by newspapers and on-line publications consists of actual ratings. If a station has a 7 share, that share is its percentage of all listening... including listening to non-subscribed stations. So that data is "actual ratings". You just don't see some stations, but the ones you do see are shown with their true ratings numbers for the whole market and all stations.

Hi David,

I understand your point and it is well taken. What I was referring to is that rankings are not valid. For instance, if I look at the ratings for the Atlantic City Market on stationratings.com I really have no idea what is the overall #1 radio station. I don't know what is #2 etc, etc. It's very likely that the top stations are not even listed.

With that said, it would be better, in my opinion, if the ratings with all its holes weren't sent out to the general public.

Josh -

You have been beating on this for almost a year. Arbitron information is for sale and if you pay you get it and if you don't you won't. If Arbitron continued to give the info away for free and non-subscribing stations like yours continue to use it like they always have, what is the incentive to pay for it? This change most likely occurred because of the complaints from the stations who did pay for it as they had no advantage over the non-payers so why pay for it?

josh said:

With that said, it would be better, in my opinion, if the ratings with all its holes weren't sent out to the general public.

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Here we agree. I think that Arbitron does a disservice to the industry by releasing data this way. It would be better not to release it at all...

I understand the concern with releasing copyright data that might be used by non-subscribers, but there is a bigger picture for Arbitron: supporting the industry they get their support from. If "missing station rankers" are given out, and the press (electronic or old school) decides it's not worth publishing or writing about, then radio gets less attention than ever. And that hurts radio and it hurts Arbitron.

Even Baskin-Robbins gives out tasting-spoon samples of their flavors!

Wish I had said that.

DavidEduardo said:

Even Baskin-Robbins gives out tasting-spoon samples of their flavors!

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True. But I was thinking more along the lines of drug dealers who give kids just enough to get them hooked.