How do radio and tv ratings work?

Question

How do radio and tv ratings work?

Answer 1

Ted is correct.  I have been in radio for 24 years.  By the way, I am told Clear Channel does not like the People Meters.

Answer 2

I agree with the guys above. The way the PPMs work is you wear it and just forget about it during the day. At certain times during the day, it will send out a signal and will pick up the nearest frequency you are tuned to. It'll log that you listened to that station and then at the end of the day, you put the PPM in its cradle that was attached in the package and while you sleep, via telephone wires (won't clash with your phone/internet) it will send the information off to Arbitron.

One of the problems that you might encounter with this system, though, is that if a place of employment puts on a certain station, your PPM might pick it up while you're at work. You don't even have to LIKE that station, but it will pick it up regardless. That is mostly how the #1 station in the #1 radio market in America (106.7 Lite FM in NYC) got such high ratings. They barely have contests or promotions, but the fact that everyone tunes in at work because of their family friendly songs gives it incredibly high ratings.

The higher the ratings, the more likely the station is to get advertisers. If they get a lot of advertisers, they have a whole lot of money, thus continuing their station's format and doing more contests. If a station has poor ratings, though, they might have to change their format because of lacking financial support.

Every few months, Arbitron posts these ratings for people to see and you can see the breakdown of who is on top and bottom in their respective markets and if their ratings have since dropped or risen.

Answer 3

Radio and TV have different rating methods.

TV is outside of my scope, but it includes a TV-Set-Top-Box

Radio, I know, however.

First, a company named Arbitron sends out a letter to a certain number of random people and asks them to fill out a "diary", which is a book with a week's worth of pages. The "listener" listens as they normally would to their favorite radio station(s) and documents it in the diary. After the week is over, the listener sends the book back to Arbitron. They calculate the ratings based on what the listeners write. This system can be manipulated or skewed easily and Arbitron is testing a new system using an electronic device that is worn by the listener. It is called the Portable People Meter and it resembles a pager.

Answer 4

Ted Kelly and the other guy are right. The diaries as they are called were not usually filled out by white males who favored Rock music for instance and other groups of people... Since the Portable people meters are small and the person has to do nothing, the PPMs have revealed what people truly like with many ethenic minority stations taking a huge hit in the ratings. Clear Channel likes it in some respects but not in others.. But supposedly most of the major radio clusters are against it currently