Beginning in January 2008, Danish radio listenership will be reported overnight on a minute-by-minute basis, as is done with television. The reports will be made by TNS Gallup using the Aribtron Portable People Meter (PPM) system.
Under the five-year agreement, 750 Danes will be equipped with a PPM unit to monitor their radio listening habits. Inaudible codes in the radio transmissions are detected by the unit to determine which station is being tuned to at any given moment. The data will be used to commercial sales and program planning. The PPM-based national panel will be supplemented with telephone surveys to help rate smaller, regional stations.
Currently, Danish radio listings are calculated on a monthly basis. PPM will allow for better comparison of radio listening with television viewership.
“We have been working on this for almost 10 years, and it becomes increasingly more relevant to have an agreement in place as more and more channels are appearing that cover the entire country,” stated Leif Lønsmann, managing radio director for public-service broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR), and chairman of the listener study steering group.
“Now DR can get more exact knowledge about, who listens to which programs and where. Danish radio listeners are critical and quality-conscious; therefore, their likes and dislikes tell us a lot about what works and what is not good enough,” Lønsmann stated.
“Electronic radio measurements will help lift the commercial radio market because the listener statistics will be more accurate, and the commercial stations will also be able to do more accurate campaign supply and evaluation,” stated Jim Receveur, general manager for Radio 100FM and the Danske Radiobureau.
“We will be in a much better position to follow and meet listener demands and acquire tools to be more accurate in planning advertising and documenting for our customers,” stated Jens Rohde, general manager for TV 2 Radio.
“We look forward to working with the new system that provides our customers with a more accurate and reliable supply of campaigns at both of our stations, The Voice and Radio 2,” stated Frederik Meyer, general manager for SBS Radio A/S.
In April Arbitron announced that Capacent in Iceland had signed a six-year agreement to begin using PPM to measure radio and television audiences.
TNS Gallup Norway is supporting Capacent in setting up and running its PPM panel. Previously, ratings in Iceland were based on weekly diaries.
