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PEOPLE METER TECHNOLOGY

Arbitron Releases Miami PPM Data After Florida Lawsuit". FMQB. July 15, 2009 INTRODUCTION In their most common incarnation, people-meters are devices that attach to each television set in a sample household. They record when the set is on and what is being watched. They also feature a set-top box with a series of lights that serve as prompts and person-specific buttons that allow individuals to indicate they are watching. To encourage viewers to log in, the lights flash when the set is turned on, when the channel is changed, or when there is no button-pushing activity for an extended period of time. Most people meters offer respondents a remote hand-held device so they can press their button without walking to the set. The data collected by the people-meters are retrieved via telephone lines on a daily basis, combined with other previously gathered viewer information (e.g.,age, gender, etc.), and turned into audience ratings that can be accessed the next day. People-meter data are typically gathered from a panel of televisionequipped households selected through some form of probability sampling. As such they suffer from the same kinds of sampling and nonresponse errors that occur in all survey research (Sampling,Random; Sampling, Nonrandom). People-meter measurement, however, presents some novel problems and solutions. Button-pushing requires the active participation of audience members. It is, therefore, a relatively obtrusive form of measurement that is subject to respondent fatigue. Further, some types of viewers, like children, are not particularly vigilant button-pushers. Ratings firms combat these problems by training respondents and offering various incentives for cooperation. They will also limit how long a household can be in the ratings panel in the US, it is a maximum of two years. Ideally, more passive technologies would identify who within the household was watching. To that end, ratings firms have experimented with facial recognition software, or having respondents wear small tags that would signal if they are in the room.Newer video technologies that offer an abundance of choice and the ability to time-shift consumption present the challenge of accurately identifying what is being watched. The problem is addressed in one of two ways. Ideally, the companies that provide media content will embed inaudible codes or watermarks into the audio portion of their offerings. Detecting these codes allows meters to record what content and delivery platform is being used, as well as calculate the extent of time-shifting. Media that are not encoded can still be identified by capturing an audio signature that is later matched to a library of material.

HISTORY

The original concept for the PPM can be traced back to a brainstorming session at Arbitron in November 1988.[citation needed] At that time, concerns over the forthcoming move from analog video to high-definition digital television had engineers concerned that the technology currently in use would become obsolete overnight. Drawing upon his experience in testing labs, Dr. Gerald Cohen proposed embedding an identifying signal in the audio and later decoding it. The rationale was simple. Dr. Cohen argued that audio was less likely to undergo as drastic a change in content and technology as would video, hence any technology developed would not likely to become obsolete in a few years. The concept was presented to the company at that time and was also written up in a short concept document. A preliminary investigation was undertaken, however, but the technology was never given serious consideration. The concept was written off and forgotten as Arbitron had bigger fish to fry in its competition with the Nielsen Company for television ratings. Arbitron lost that battle and went back to its core business radio ratings. Dr. Cohens idea lay dormant until 1992 when Drs. Richard Schlunt and Patrick Nunally approached Arbitron. Meeting with Ronald Kolessar, Director of Technology, Dr. Cohen and others, they presented a new variation of the idea selectively embed a code into the frequency spectrum of the baseband audio stream and use digital signal processing in a small wearable device to recover the embedded code buried in what a person watches or listens to.[citation
needed]

Convinced that that concept could be achieved, Mr. Kolessar obtained approval from Arbitron's management to undertake a fasttrack effort to determine feasibility. Lacking the internal expertise to do so additional outside help from Martin Marietta was sought. Facing cutbacks in the defense industry, Martin Marietta agreed to take on commercial business even to the point of signing away all

rights to the technology they were to develop. Engineers at Martin Marietta decided that the best approach was to employ the principle of psychoacoustics to mask the embedded code signal, an approach described in U.S. Patent No. 5,450,490. Now a full-fledged project having management support, development by engineers at Arbitron focused on improving the encoding and detection methodology and miniaturization into a

hand-held device. Additional capabilities such as motion detection were added later on. In 2008, EE Times as part of their Great Minds, Great Ideas Project profiled Mr. Kolessar as the "Inventor of the Portable People Meter".

PORTABLE PEOPLE-METERS Other forms of portable electronic media, like radio, are ever more commonplace. The diary-based measures that are still the principal means for measuring radio audiences, however, are problematic, and conventional people-meters that are anchored to a particular location are ill-suited to the task. This has given rise to newer, portable people-meters (PPM) that are carried by respondents and are capable of capturing exposure to multiple sources of media. At this writing, the most fully developed PPM technology is being deployed by the Arbitron Company, the major supplier of radio ratings in the US. It is being introduced in major American markets, and is being used in several countries, either as the currency for buying and selling media, or as a supplement to more conventional metering. Arbitrons PPM requires a sample of respondents to carry or wear a pager-sized device that is capable of detecting inaudible watermarks embedded in the audio signal of either radio or television. Thus, the PPM can capture information on exposure to either or both media. Portable media using earphones can be measured using special adapters. In the future, it might also be possible to measure proximity to print media by seeding them with tiny RFID chips, or outdoor advertising by building in some sort of GPS technology.

At the end of the day, respondents are instructed to place their PPM in a docking station that recharges the meter and retrieves the data. PPMs are designed with motion-detectors to determine whether they are being carried. If they are not, the ratings company can contact the respondent. Though they are less expensive and more easily deployed that conventional hard-wired people-meters, PPM technology is not cheap. Having PPMs accomplish both radio an television measurement would greatly improve the economics of deployment. However,in the US Nielsen has shown qualified interest, in part, because optimizing the device for

Peoplemeter Installation Change to TVM-5 Technology

There are many types of peoplemeter or electronic survey equipments. As cellular phone, peoplemeter is also adjusted to local TV environment in each country. But it has to have technical standard which is certified internationally by international institution, such as ARM Group that also issues GGTAM. Types of peoplemeter are for analog environment, digital environment, offline data collection through modules (an equipment to record viewing data) and on-line data collection through data transmission, either by fix line telephone or GSM. With high penetration of cellular phone in Indonesia, peoplemeter with online GSM method (series TVM-5) will replace peoplemeter with off-line method. While off-line technology required seven to 10 days in data collecting and delivery, on-line technology enable faster TV audience data availability, even overnight (Daily Rating or Overnight TAM Data). TVM5 represents the latest generation of TVM series. It contains features to measure all known TV platforms and devices. It is based on the non-intrusive concept and emphasizing the need for reliability in measuring both analogue and digital broadcasts TV audiences. TVM5 incorporates a number of updated features to minimize panel member tampering, further simplify the installation process and a full off-site remote management system including remote on-line checks, configuration and programming. Each of household members is associated to specific buttons in the peoplemeter handset (example: button 1 for Father, button 2 for Mother, etc). Household members are required to press the handset button while watching TV and vice versa, turn off the meter once they finished watching. Peoplemeter will automatically record household panel member viewing and identify the channel they watch. Then the viewing data is transferred through GSM transmission unit to AGBNielsen office in Jakarta every day to be processed automatically.

Peoplemeter Set: TVM5

A people meter is a audience measurement tool used to measure the viewing habits of TV and cable audiences. The People Meter is a 'box', about the size of a paperback book. The box is hooked up to each television set and is accompanied by a remote control unit. Each family member in a sample household is assigned a personal 'viewing button'. It identifies each household member's age and sex. If the TV is turned on and the viewer doesn't identify themselves, the meter flashes to remind them. Additional

buttons on the People Meter enable guests to participate in the sample by recording their age, sex and viewing status into the system. The device, known as a 'frequency-based meter', was invented by a British company called Audits of Great Britain (AGB). The successor company to AGB is TNS, which is active in 34 countries around the globe. Originally, these meters identified the frequency of the channels VHF or UHF - watched on the viewer's TV set. This system became obsolete when Direct to Home (DTH) satellite dish became popular and viewers started to get their own satellite decoders. In addition, this system doesn't measure digital broadcasts. Before the People Meter advances, Nielsen used the diary method, which consisted of viewers physically recording the shows they watched. However, there were setbacks with the system. Lowerrated stations claimed the diary method was inaccurate and biased. They argued that because they had lower ratings, those who depended on memory for the diary method the may only remember to track their favorite shows. Stations also argued that if it wasnt low ratings that skewed the diary method, it might also be the new variety of channels for viewers to choose from. Viewers may not be able to record everything they watch and there is no way of discovering the truth. Finally in 1986, Nielsen developed an electronic meter, People Meter, to solve the problem. The People

Meter is an electronic method of television measurement that moved from active and diary-based to passive and meter-monitored. The meter also recorded real time simultaneously viewing, reducing memory bias. Because Audits of Great Britain (AGB) had just entered the U.S. market executing similar technology, Nielsen felt the need to compete. Nielson made a substantial technological advance before network-era norms entered crisis with transition to the national People Meter sample in 1987. Although People Meters presented substantial improvements over the previous system, the alteration in audience measurement caused significant controversy. The method change costs stations whose audience had been over estimated.The end of the multi-channel transition was in large part due to the continuous changes in technology and distribution. Nielsen was at a disadvantage as their measuring techniques required burdensome adjustments. Luckily for Nielsen, the advances in advertising strategies, distribution windows, and ways people were using television made industry sectors interested in data about viewing behavior. Along with changing their counting methods, Nielsen also started emphasizing their sample in 2003 in reaction to census shifts and requests from some industry sectors. Nielsens automated Local People Meter (LPM) technology was introduced in New York and Los Angeles. The LPM improved the method of measurement from

active and diary-based to passive and meter-monitored. More importantly, the LPM provides accurate measurements to particular local markets, verse a nation wide sample from the People meter. While diary-based surveys concentrated on quarterly sweeps periods, the industry has been pushed towards year-round measurement, due to the automated LPM system. Today there are new systems such as the portable people meter and 'Picture Matching' measuring the viewing habits of TV audiences. In an effort to improve the accuracy of radio ratings, Arbitron and Nielsen Media Research are testing a "portable people meter" (PPM) for radio. This new device to be clipped to an individual's clothing. Radio stations encode an inaudible, unique signal as part of their broadcasts. The PPM "hears" this signal and records the station and the time spent listening. Such a device requires far less effort on the part of respondents.

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