PPM Will Be Used in Belgium

The much-debated Portable People Meter will get a five-year workout in Belgium. Arbitron said its electronic audience measurement system was chosen by two Belgium broadcasting companies to measure the listening and viewing habits of the Flemish community. The broadcasters handed a five-year contact to TNS Media to install a panel of 450 people equipped with Arbitron’s PPM system beginning in the second quarter of this year. TNS Media has a licensing deal with Arbitron. The system will allow both radio and television analysis.
Belgium becomes the third country outside the U.S. to use the PPM technology. The Television Corporation of Singapore has employed Arbitron’s audio encoding system in Taylor Nelson Sofres’ set-top people meters to identify what television programs are being watched in 750 homes across Singapore since 2001. BBM Canada will begin measuring French-language television audiences in Montreal and Quebec with the PPM beginning in the fourth quarter of 2003.