Causes for Panel Removal
There are numerous reasons for a household to be removed as panelists from the PPM survey. Reasons include a family's request for removal, a move out of the metro area, constant disconnections of the home phone (or cell phone, in a cell phone only family) by the phone company, a radio station employing a member of the household, and others that may yet be determined. Panel relations specialists stay in communication with survey households to encourage proper usage and answer any questions.
Accreditation
Arbitron’s guinea pig markets for test marketing Portable People Meters have been Philadelphia and Houston, the latter being the only city accredited by the Media Ratings Council (MRC). Apparently, the accreditation was due to the recruitment process of combining telephone solicitation with person to person, door-to-door canvassing. In Philadelphia only phone recruitment, referred to as “Radio First,” is used to select panels, and is the only recruitment method chosen for all other PPM markets. About one third of Houston panelists are still recruited in person, door to door.
The next installment in this series will address concerns of the broadcast industry with political pressure, legal issues, and Arbitron's response.
Article comments
1 - Dr. Juliann Mitchell, PhD
Sam,
Do the participants get paid for carrying the PPM?