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Clear Channel Radio today announced 7 finalists for its request for proposals to create a new radio ratings system, in the hopes of “more accurately and credibly measuring radio’s true performance and value to advertisers,” said John Hogan, CEO of Clear Channel Radio. Clear Channel received 34 submissions to its RFP, which it issued in June.
The submitting companies are: Arbitron, Integrated Media Management, MediaAudit/Ipsos, Mediamark Research, Paladin Adsolutions, RadioStat and Simmons. Clear Channel has set March 3 as a selection date for a final measurement method, with a live test period to begin this spring.
The evaluation team consists of radio companies (ABC, Bonneville, CBS Radio, Clear Channel Radio, Cox Radio, Emmis, Entercom, Greater Media, Journal, Regent, and Susquehanna), media buyers (CIA Media:Edge, Initiative, Mediacom, and MPG), and advertisers (Ford Motor Company).
Earlier this year, Forrester research pointed to a need for a new radio ratings system beyond Arbitron’s diary-based measurement. Arbitron, working on its rollout of the portable people meter, likely feels that it has already found a solution, but Clear Channel wanted to see what other options might be available. One reason Arbitron’s PPMs have come under fire has been the fact that the measurement tool costs more and delivers ratings that are 20 percent lower than under the current diary ratings service.
Meanwhile, Arbitron may face new rivals that have come to light with the Clear Channel RFP. Media Audit, a research firm, and Ipsos, a U.K.-based media research firm, have joined to introduce their own passive ratings service, and plan to run a field test in the U.S. in mid-2006, Mediaweek reports.
The ratings service would be based on Ipsos’s Smart Phone technology, a cell phone that would also record media exposure by tracking both watermark-encoded signals and audio matching signals that aren’t encoded.
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