Survey Dates Tweaked

Arbitron is no longer placing a one-week break between the spring and summer surveys as it has for a decade.
In the continuously measured markets — 97 of them — the quarterly survey periods for the diary-based radio ratings will consist of four contiguous 12-week surveys. In PPM markets, subscribers will receive monthly reports, not quarterly, because of the increased weekly/monthly sample size that the PPM service will deliver.
“The ‘monthly’ reports in PPM markets will correspond to the 4-week ‘phases’ that we are used to following in the Arbitrends service,” the company stated. “Remember also that PPM markets have 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.”
The Arbitron survey week remains Thursday through Wednesday.