After a few days of stories about the number of panelists in a household, Mark Ramsey’s recent blog calling on radio stations to bail on the ratings firm, and the question many managers are pondering about just how many panelists is too many, we wanted to make sure to get Nielsen’s take on the situation. We received the following statement from the company on Tuesday.
“We strongly believe in and stand behind our portable people meter (PPM) technology. Our 70,000+ PPM panel is representative of the marketplace. While the tenure of individual Nielsen PPM panelists vary by demographics, on average, a person is part of the panel for 11 months. While less than half a percent of our in-tab persons come from households with 10 or more residents, our average household panel size for people 6 years and older is 2.5 persons per home for all PPM markets. This is in line with the household universe estimate of 2.4 persons per home. Nielsen’s PPM technology will continue to deliver currency grade metrics that the radio and advertising industries depend on to transact with confidence.”
I met a ppm that was a 5th grader. She left school as soon as the bell rang so she could go home and watch TV for Nielsen. And in my 33 years, I’ve not so much as gotten a postcard from either Nielsen or Arbitron.
Better to do exit polls at the Piggly Wiggly.
I mentioned to Mark earlier: “Radio sells b.s in the form of lousy spots and buys b.s. in the form of PPM’s.”