TORONTO – BBM Canada is offering national and regional electronic audience measurement service using portable people meter (PPM) technology in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.
PPM follows television viewers no matter where they watch television, and records radio listening to one minute accuracy almost anywhere the listener is, in real time. The PPM is about the size of a pager and automatically detects inaudible codes that broadcasters embed in the audio portion of their programming using encoders provided by BBM. At the end of each day, the survey participants place the meters into docking stations that recharge the devices and send the collected codes via modem, to BBM for tabulation.
“The launch of BBM Canada’s radio and television PPM service is a huge step forward for the Canadian television and advertising industries”, said BBM Canada president and CEO Jim MacLeod, in the press release. “BBM led the world with PPM technology in Montreal and Quebec regional television measurement in 2004. With five years of experience we know PPM is reliable, that BBM panellists like to use the device, and that portable measurement is much more in tune with today’s mobile lifestyles.”
The PPM devices are carried daily by approximately 9000 people across Canada. In addition to the three new markets, BBM will use the devices in Edmonton for radio.
