Arbitron Shifts Surveys by a Week

Arbitron said it is changing previously announced start dates for the Winter and Spring 2007 surveys in all of its markets.
The new survey dates for the winter 2007 survey are Jan. 11 to April 4. Spring ’07 dates are April 5-June 27.
Summer and fall 2007 dates are unchanged.
“Arbitron will no longer place a one-week break between the Spring and Summer surveys as had been the company’s practice since 1996,” it stated. “In the 97 continuously measured markets, the quarterly survey periods for the Arbitron diary-based radio ratings services will now consist of four contiguous 12-week surveys, beginning with the Winter Survey which starts in January and concluding with the Fall Survey which ends in December.”
In markets that get two surveys each year, it will conduct only the Spring and Fall surveys on the dates above.
Starting next year, in markets measured by the PPM, there will be an additional four weeks of measurement covering the “holiday period” between the last week of the Fall Survey and the first week of the Winter survey.
“This means that in PPM markets, Arbitron will annually release 13 individual four-week rating reports. Twelve will correspond to the individual survey phases typically used in the Arbitrends service. The thirteenth four-week report in the annual cycle will occur between the last week of the Fall Survey and the first week of the Winter survey.”