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Arbitron will begin rolling out its portable people meter measurement service in Houston in July, with the top 10 markets following Houston by the fall of 2008 and the rest of the top 50 within three years after that, according to Mediapost. Only two radio broadcasters - Spanish Broadcasting and Beasley Broadcasting - have committed to using the PPMs, though 18 of the nation’s major agencies ad agencies and one national advertiser, Wendy’s International, are already onboard and most large radio buyers have endorsed the service, Mediaweek writes.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after Nielsen Media Research backed out of a joint venture with Arbitron to commercialize a PPM-based ratings system for television. Arbitron president and CEO Steve Morris said that Nielsen’s decision left Arbitron free to focus on radio’s needs “without having to negotiate trade-offs to accommodate television requirements.”
Radio groups are balking at the PPM because of the 40 to 65 percent cost increase over the current diary based service.
Meanwhile, Clear Channel is searching for an alternative to the PPMs, having issued a request for proposals for an electronic radio ratings service. Yesterday, Clear Channel announced it had narrowed the field to three candidates: Arbitron, Mediamark Research Inc., and Media Audit.
Philadelphia, the first city tested for the PPM, will be the second PPM market in the rollout. A schedule for the rollout can be found here.
Volvo will become the first automaker to offer HD Radio as standard equipment in all but one of its 2009 models. The running change becomes effective next month on the 2009 Volvo model lineup.
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Macy’s is hoping to drum up excitement about its famous annual Thanksgiving Day Parade by handing out flip books featuring familiar parade scenes, including Santa’s arrival at the parade during the grand finale.
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Project Runway is still deadlocked in legal tangles that could keep the show off the air indefinitely.
The program, originally on Bravo, was slated to move to Lifetime in January for its sixth season, but Bravo parent company NBCU is suing producer…
Forbes is combining its print and web staffs and reorganizing its sales and marketing teams in a move that will better enable the magazine to “weather the current economic storm,” says chairman-CEO Steve Forbes
The switch will mean a 43-job reduction,…
An overwhelming majority of mothers in America (90%) saw the economy getting weaker even before the collapse on Wall Street, and more of them now (40%) feel stressed about their current family life than feel good about the way things…
