TORONTO – Radio’s primary position in the media landscape has been confirmed by pre-currency data from the portable people meters (PPM), the Radio Marketing Bureau (RMB) says.
The RBM has posted trends gleaned from pre-commercial radio audience data collected from June 1 to August 31, 2009 for the radio markets of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto on its website.
On average, reach from a market perspective was similar between the PPM and diaries, however, from a station perspective, reach was significantly higher in all four markets. This is due in part to the fact that PPM accounts for persons that are exposed for even 1 minute or more, while diary respondents report listening to stations that are part of their daily routine and seldom record second hand exposure, the RMB summary explains.
For the general population, PPM reports no defined ‘prime time’ for radio. Diary data typically reports that morning and afternoon drive times had the highest reach potential, but PPM data indicates that day time tuning is just as strong.
There were also slight shifts in share of tuning hours by daypart when comparing PPM to diary for adults 18+ in the four markets. Morning drive times lost between 7 and 3 percentage points while evenings and weekends actually increased their share.
“Just as we saw in Montreal, the pre-currency trending for Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver demonstrates radio’s importance as a primary medium for just about all Canadians everyday of the week”, said RMB president Gary Belgrave, in a statement. “The robustness of the PPM data provides further proof, as was previously shown in diary data, that radio reaches Canadian consumers in record numbers.”
The PPM measurement data will be released for commercialization on December 10, 2009.
– Lesley Hunter
