Canadian French TV Goes With PPM; French Radio Study Underway

The Canadian industry consortium for radio and TV audience ratings, BBM Canada, will use the Arbitron Portable People Meter as the official ratings system for buying and selling commercial airtime on French-language television in Quebec and Montreal.
The group is still evaluating PPM use for Canadian radio. BBM has encoded all 28 Montreal radio stations, and is forming a local committee to review the current methodology versus the data provided by PPM. This committee will examine how to best use PPM in radio and draft recommendations on future use for the BBM.
For TV, PPM-based television ratings service will replace push-button people meters beginning in September 2004. BBM will phase out push-button people meters in the Quebec market by the end of the year.
“Soon, television meters will no longer do the job if they remain hardwired to receivers in panelist homes,” said Jim MacLeod, president and chief executive officer, BBM Canada, in a statement. “We must go with the viewers to capture, passively and automatically, every exposure to a growing number of TV and media appliances found in and out of the home.”
Earlier this year, the BBM Board voted to endorse the PPM as the technology of choice for electronic measurement. The board has also noted that that there has been a demonstrated interest in adopting electronic measurement for radio in the future.