PPM Better for Sports, Arbitron Says

Arbitron says its PPM “consistently captures more listeners to sporting events on radio, especially those with afternoon and early-evening start times.”
It offered the data in a presentation to an event in Chicago, in support of its electronic measurement system compared to the current radio ratings system.
Electronic measurement via the PPM is more reliable, faster and more granular than other means of measuring play-by-play audiences, it quoted PPM executive John Snyder as saying.
“While the standard Arbitron radio diary does indicate that flagship sports stations have higher total (cume) audiences during a regular season, the Arbitron PPM shows a significantly larger total audience for play-by-play sports than does the paper and pencil diary,” the company said. “In addition cume audiences for play-by-play sports is directly linked with start time. For the most part, earlier games will have higher cumes, according to the presentation.”