Nielsen to Boost PPM Sample Size.

Story by Inside Radio

In its first major move since re-entering the radio business, Nielsen announces an ambitious plan to expand sample size across PPM markets. The total number of panelists will jump 6% – with even larger increases in market Nos. 31-48 where the typical sample size will grow 20%. Nielsen says it will put a special focus on harder-to-recruit African American and Hispanic demos as it brings new panelists onboard.

The increase in PPM panels is designed to create what Nielsen says will be “more stable data,” as well as a sample that is “even more representative of the overall U.S. population.” The larger sample sizes will be brought online in the second half of 2014. No price increase will be tied to the improvements.

“We created this action plan around the core broadcast radio business following a series of conversations with our clients,” Nielsen COO Mitchell Habib says. “As we make progress against the plan we will share additional insight into our investments.”

Beyond growing sample PPM market sizes, Nielsen also plans to release a new technology feature that will automatically send alerts to stations if their encoding goes offline. It’s designed to help avoid the occasional problems that subscribers run into when PPM encoding goes down and their ratings are unknowingly impacted since people meters aren’t picking up the embedded codes in the air signal.

Nielsen SVP of local media Farshad Family tells Inside Radio the company is looking at number of additional customer service improvements in the coming months. They will focus on digital audio measurement as well as coming up with new ways to help broadcasters develop ROI metrics to demonstrate the power of radio to advertisers.

For now, Nielsen says there’s no immediate plan however to make similar sample size increases in the diary market service.