Arbitron reports "record high" young Black proportionality in PPM markets

story by Inside Radio

The combination of data analysts to monitor panel compliance across demos, market coaches to visit problematic households and other efforts appear to be paying off for Arbitron's PPM ratings service. Designated Delivery Index (DDI), a measure of how closely the sample mirrors the demographic makeup of a market, has imporved over the last year and now meets benchmarks in most markets, the company told clients Tuesday. Young African-Americans were more proportionally represented in December on average across the 33 commercialized PPM markets than in November, when 25 markets were metered. Average DDI among Black 18-34 year-olds imporved from 90 in November to a "record high" 96 in December 2009, according to SVP Bill Rose. Los Angeles (70) and Cleveland (69) remain trouble spots in the demo. Average DDI among general market 18-34s inched 92-93 but declined 93-91 among 18-34 Hispanics. Average 18-54 DDI was 103 in December, up from 101 in November. While the targer is 100, Arbitron has set proportionality benchmarks of 95 in year one and 100 in year two for 6+ PPM sample and 26% of its 18-34 sample was comprised of cell phone-only households in December. Arbitron says it expects those percentages to grow to 35% of 18-34s by the end of the year, when it increases 6+ CPO sampling to 20%. Still, the company is lagging behind the latest government estimates which show more than one of every five American homes (22.7%) have only wireless phones and much higher percentages exist among adults aged 25-29 (45.8%), 18-24 (37.6%) and 30-34 (33.5%). Meanwhile, as 18-34 proportionality has risen, 35-44 has dropped. Arbitron VP Beth Webb says the company will implement selective targeting for 35-44s in the first quarter but it will take "several months" to correct the problem.