Some say Arb's satellite ratings have a ways to go
·Dec 3, 12:24 PM
Posted by: Paul Maloney
From Radio And Records: “What if someone threw a ratings party and nobody came? It seems inconceivable, but since Arbitron made audience  estimates for satellite radio public for the first time in October, there seems to be little if any buzz, with hardly so much as a few discouraging words…
“A quick overview shows XM’s weekly cume at 10,332,900 persons, while Sirius checks in with 6,595,000. The channel that led the way for both satellite providers was no real shocker: Howard Stern’s Howard 100 has a weekly cume of slightly more than 1.2 million. XM’s Top 20 on 20 channel also tops 1 million…
“What’s apparent when looking at the numbers is that whether it’s music or talk, mainstream formats are the preferred choice even among satellite listeners…
“The results are interesting, (Jacobs Media founder Fred Jacobs) says, ‘because when you think about satellite radio you think about more niche tastes,’ but it’s the more mainstream channels that do well, ‘so the hits are the hits are the hits.’..
“XM executive VP of programming Eric Logan… believes that the focus of a channel such as ’60s on 6, which has a weekly cume of 619,600… ‘tells you the strength of what we have to offer, which is content that’s not readily available on terrestrial radio,’ he says…
“Satellite may not get proper credit
for “shared content”“But Logan doesn’t completely buy into Arbitron’s measurement of satellite listening. There are, he says, ‘gross inconsistencies in relativity of channels between what we see in our surveys and what Arbitron does.’..
“Part of the reason for the disparity may be the methodology, some of which is unique to measuring satellite radio. As outlined by Arbitron, ‘In instances where it is not clear if a diarykeeper was attempting to record listening to a terrestrial station, or to a satellite radio channel, Arbitron’s diary edit procedures presume that the diarykeeper was attempting to record listening to an AM or FM radio station.’
“That doesn’t sit well with Logan. ‘If you’re driving around in Los Angeles and you write down, “Dodger game,” and you happen to be listening to the Dodgers on XM, the local station is going to get the credit if it’s not clearly [attributed] to the satellite radio provider.’..
“There’s also shared content among XM, Sirius and terrestrial radio. For example, both satcasters and terrestrial radio carry Sean Hannity. ‘The same phenomenon happens there,’ Logan says…
“Diary instructions ‘very-well hidden’
for satellite listeners”“The diary methodology appears to be the big disconnect for most of those who have scoured the satellite ratings data so far. ‘When you get a diary from Arbitron that has columns that say “AM” and “FM” and no column that says “Internet” or “satellite,” are you to conclude that kind of listening is wrong, at least for the purposes of this exercise?’ (Mark) Ramsey (president of Mercury Radio Research and Hear 2.0, an audio entertainment strategy company) asks…
“Beginning with the fall 2006 survey, Arbitron modified the instruction page on the inside of the diary cover to include the following language: ‘If you listen over the Internet or to a satellite radio service, please include the station name or channel number.’ References to ‘Internet’ and ‘satellite’ were added to the checklist and sample appearing on the inside cover of the diary.
“Consultant Jaye Albright of Albright & O’Malley says the instructions are confusing. ‘I looked at the diary and if it’s telling me to write down listening on satellite or Internet, it’s a very well-hidden instruction,’ she says. ‘It’s there, but very well-camouflaged.’..
“Ramsey believes that in order to correctly identify a satellite station, more information is needed than is required for terrestrial radio… ‘When it’s more work to do something, fewer folks will do it.’”
This entire story is available at Radio & Records. Read more on the R&R website — next to the header “R&R Newsroom,” click on “News Archives,” then select Nov. 30th.
“RAIN Analysis: Diary obviously understates reality. Also, niche formats ARE important”See RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson’s take on this story back in the October 10th issue of RAIN here.
KURT ADDS: On top of everything I wrote in October (see link in paragraph above), I’d like to add that I think some of the consultants quoted in this article are missing the point, as described in the book “The Long Tail” (by Chris Anderson, who’ll be giving a keynote at the RAB conference in February).
Yes, it’s true, “the hits are still the hits,” but the point Anderson makes, correctly, is that the hits aren’t as big as they used to be, and the many niches, in aggregate, are extremely important. (Add up all of the XM or Sirius channels representing formats that aren’t available on FM (pop standards, reggae, opera, etc.) and you get a HUGE audience.) —KH
share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
|
