Nielsen Audio

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Nielsen Audio
Company type
Subsidiary
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Headquarters
Columbia, Maryland, U.S.
Area served
United States
Key people
Sean Creamer (CEO)
ProductsRatings data
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Total equityIncreaseUS$126.81 million (FY 2010)[1]
OwnerThe Nielsen Company
Number of employees
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Websitewww.nielsen.com/audio

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Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau in Beltsville, Maryland,[2] by Jim Seiler in 1949 and went national by merging with Los Angeles-based Coffin, Cooper, and Clay in the early 1950s.[3] The company's first business was the collection of broadcast television ratings.

The company changed its name to Arbitron in the mid‑1960s, the namesake of the Arbitron System, a centralized statistical computer with leased lines to television viewers' homes to monitor their activity. Deployed in New York City, it gave live ratings data on what people were watching. A reporting board lit up to indicate which homes were listening to which broadcasts.[4] For years, Arbitron was a part of Control Data Corporation (CDC) until in 1992 it became a part of Ceridian Corporation before the company was split in 2001. Arbitron continued by renaming the old Ceridian Corporation while the spin-off firm took the Ceridian Corporation name and acted as accounting successor.[5]

On December 18, 2012, The Nielsen Company announced that it would acquire Arbitron, its only competitor, for US$1.26 billion.[6][7] The acquisition closed on September 30, 2013, and the company was re-branded as Nielsen Audio. As a condition of the deal to allow a monopoly, Nielsen was required to license its ratings data and technology to a third party for eight years.[8]

Methods

Survey

Arbitron's syndicated radio ratings service collects data by selecting a random sample of a population throughout the United States, primarily in 294 metropolitan areas, using a paper diary service 2‑4 times a year and the Portable People Meter (PPM) electronic audience measurement service 365 days a year.[citation needed]

The term commonly used in the radio industry for these ratings is Arbitron book, a carryover from the era when ratings were published in a softcover report that was mailed to clients. More specifically, in the diary-measured markets these reports were called the "Spring book", "Summer book", "Fall book", and "Winter book". Between these "books", Arbitron releases interim monthly reports called "Arbitrends", which contain data from the previous three months known as "rolling average" reports. The two interim reports would be known, for example, as "Spring, Phase I" and "Spring, Phase II".[citation needed]

Arbitron recruits diary survey respondents to note their listening habits in a seven-day paper diary and mail it back to Arbitron. The respondents are paid a small cash incentive for their participation. Turnaround time for release of data from the end of the survey period is approximately three weeks.[citation needed]

After collection, the data is marketed to radio broadcasters, radio networks, cable TV companies, advertisers, advertising agencies, out-of-home advertising companies, and the online radio industry.[9] Major ratings products include cume (the cumulative number of unique listeners over a period), average quarter hour (AQH share – the average number of people listening in a given 15‑minute period), time spent listening (TSL), and market breakdowns by age, gender, and race/ethnicity. The "cume" only counts a listener once, whereas the AQH is a product of "cume" and time spent listening. For example, if you looked into a room and saw Fred and Jane, then 15 minutes later saw Fred with Sara. The "cume" would be 3 (Fred, Jane, Sara) and the AQH would be 2 (an average of two people in the room in a given 15‑minute period).[citation needed]

Portable People Meter

Responding to requests from its customers—radio broadcasters, ad agencies and advertisers—that expressed their interest in the collection of more accurate ratings data, Arbitron introduced the Portable People Meter (PPM) service in 2007.[10]

The PPM is a wearable portable device, much like a pager or mobile phone, that electronically gathers subaudible codes that identify the source of a broadcast, such as a radio station. Arbitron recruits and compensates a cross-section of consumers to wear the meter for an average of one year and up to two years. The audience estimates generated from each monthly survey are used as the buy/sell currency for radio stations and advertisers/agencies.

As of December 2009, the PPM was measured in 33 media markets, including Houston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York City, Atlanta, Detroit, Long Island, Middlesex-Somerset-Union, Chicago, Los Angeles, Riverside-San Bernardino, San Francisco, Jacksonville, Baltimore, and San Jose.[11] By 2010, 48 markets are being measured using the PPM.[12][13]

See also

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Arbitron, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Feb 24, 2012" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 13, 2013.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Original American Research Bureau, later Arbitron, 4320 Ammendale Road, Beltsville, Maryland". University of Minnesota Library. Retrieved 17 Oct 2025. https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll91:408
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Richter, William A. (2006). Radio: A Complete Guide to the Industry, Volume 4 of Media industries. Peter Lang. p. 84. ISBN 9780820476339.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Beville, Hugh Malcolm (1988). Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, and Cable. Psychology Press. p. 68. ISBN 9780805801743.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."ARBITRON INC (Form Type: 8-K, Filing Date: 03/30/2001)". edgar.secdatabase.com. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Arbitron, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Dec 18, 2012". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 13, 2013.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Nielsen to Branch Out With Arbitron". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Nielsen Deal For Arbitron Is Complete". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."What We Do". Arbitron. Archived from the original on 11 January 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Arbitron, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Feb 27, 2007" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 13, 2013.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Arbitron, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Mar 1, 2010". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 13, 2013.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Arbitron, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Feb 24, 2011" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 13, 2013.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Arbitron PPM Update September 2011 Report Release" (PDF). Arbitron. 2011-10-12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-05. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Vega, Tanzina (13 September 2012). "ESPN, Aided by Arbitron and comScore, to Follow the Audience Wherever It Goes". New York Times. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
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