Arbitron Commences Cellphone-Only Sampling

Ratings giant Arbitron has begun cellphone-only household sampling in an initial 151 diary markets for its Spring 2009 radio survey. More than a third of a million households have already been contacted to build the address-based sample.

The company plans to expand cellphone-only sampling to all radio markets in the US, Alaska and Hawaii with the Fall 2009 survey.

Describing the demographic, Ed Cohen, VP, Research Policy and Communication, said that as expected, these listeners are younger and more ethnically diverse than the population at large.

'We're also seeing that cell-phone-only penetration varies significantly by market. Our initial sampling results track very closely with state-level estimates recently issued by the National Center for Health Statistics', Cohen added.

Last summer, Arbitron announced it would be recruiting more cellphone-only households, a task the firm says is more difficult than recruiting landline households but which needs doing to ensure panels are representative. Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM) markets already include cellphone-only households in rating panels.

Web site: www.arbitron.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.