Our colleague Mark Ramsey via All Access tells it plain and unvarnished. Our work in PPM markets underscores the tenuous challenge for stations vis-à-vis panelists and households.
MARK RAMSEY MEDIA President MARK RAMSEY has taken the ball and run with it in his blog “It’s Time To Drop NIELSEN’s PPM” following the disclosure in TOM TAYLOR NOW that NIELSEN will allow up to 16 PPM devices in a single household. RAMSEY notes “that one current in-tab household has 13 meters, and nine of them belong to people under the age of 17.”
RAMSEY goes on to quote, “NIELSEN likes stability on the panel, and this particular household has been in the sample for quite a while. Imagine replacing them when they leave after as much as a two-year tenure. That will require placement into multiple households to achieve 13 new meter-carriers, and it costs NIELSEN money. But a couple of stations in NIELSEN markets aren’t crazy about the possibility of one household with more than a dozen PPMs. We know that younger children can be influenced by the media behavior of their parents or older siblings, for instance. Subscribers aren’t allowed to know the identity of panel members.”
In his blog, RAMSEY calls it ” … a perversion of the ratings system, flat out. And it’s one of many reasons why NIELSEN subscribers should be up in arms.” Just last WEEK, MAX MEDIA/NORFOLK GM DAVE PAULUS announced that his cluster — which includes Country WGH-F (EAGLE 97.3), AC WVBW (92.9 THE WAVE), Top 40 WVHT (HOT 100.5), Sports WVSP-F (ESPN RADIO 94.1), and Gospel WGH-A (STAR 1310) — were moving forward without NIELSEN AUDIO (NET NEWS 8/5).
