By Ronald S. Kolessar
Vice President of Technology
Arbitron Inc.

In 1992, I was asked by executives at Arbitron to develop a system that would do something radically new and different-measure television and radio audiences at the same time. And if the technique my team developed could be passive-no writing of entries in a paper diary or on a PDA, no pushing of buttons on a set-top device-all the better. What we set out to create more than a dozen years ago had the potential to overturn virtually every expectation about the way radio and television audiences should be measured.

We decided to develop a portable device that would detect an inaudible code that would be embedded in the audio of radio and television programming. All survey participants would have to do was carry the device with them. Their every exposure to encoded radio and TV programs would be automatically recorded. In contrast to previous rating systems, the Portable People Meter (PPM) we developed is significantly more passive and reports what participants hear whether they are in or out of the home.

While this new ratings technology has gone through a number of cycles of development, test, redefinition and enhancement, the greatest challenge in the development of the system was getting the industry to accept a new way of doing ratings. A portable device that electronically measures the person and not the media appliance is disruptive to the current television-measurement business and a radical new concept for the radio business.

It has taken some time to get the industry to recognize that the benefits will far outweigh the risks of change.

On the television side, even the most state-of-the-art measurement methods used devices that are attached to television sets. These devices rely on viewers pushing buttons to signal that they are in the audience. By contrast, our PPM recognizes that we are all being exposed to television outside the home much more than in the past. We are increasingly exposed to media in airports, train stations, stores and restaurants. Other technologies have missed this fact.

This change in the definition of what constitutes a television viewer can change the reported distribution of audiences. That, in turn, can change how billions of dollars are spent on television advertising.

Radio audiences have been measured for many years through the use of handwritten daily diaries. Arbitron distributes more than a million of these diaries nationally and then tabulates the data and produces quarterly reports. Radio stations use this data to help determine their format and schedule as well as advertising rates. Our PPM allows for more frequent and precise reporting. However, this produces different results from the diary method. And that in turn may change how radio ad dollars are spent.