TORONTO – Quebec’s portable people meter panel will grow to 800 households, BBM announced today.
Twenty-three major broadcasters in the Québec Franco market are behind the increase, said Greg Mudry, BBM board chairman
“We are delighted about the broadcasters’ decision,” said Jim MacLeod, president and CEO of BBM Canada, in a release. “It underscores the Québec industry’s steadfast commitment to the PPM technology.”
“PPM has more than proved its superiority since becoming the commercial currency in Québec and Montréal Franco. The Québec broadcasters’ decision to expand PPM is confirmation that PPM is the right choice for the present and the future”, said Robert Langlois, vice-president, Québec, BBM Canada. “The expansion of PPM to 800 homes will make the data more stable and reliable than ever before for narrow demographic groups and over shorter periods of time.”
“Several years ago, we made the decision to convert the Québec Franco from a push-button wired-in-place people meter system to a passive, portable meter that would stand the test of time,” added Claude Lizotte, vice-president, general manager, Astral Média Plus. “Because the PPM meter measures television more effectively, our decision to increase sample size is even more relevant and will benefit every member of the service.
The PPM also measures radio, but that aspect is still in the test phase.
“In our increasingly wireless world, it just makes sense to have an audience measurement system that measures people, rather than places. PPM is the only technology which can do it commercially,” added François Vary, president of the Québec Media Directors Council.
BBM’s Québec Franco meter service started with 365 households in 2001. The panel was converted to PPM technology and expanded to 530 households in 2004. The further expansion to 800 households will be completed during the 2005-2006 broadcast year.
The PPM (Portable People Meter), developed by Arbitron Inc. is a pager-sized device that is carried by a representative panel of television viewers. It automatically detects inaudible codes that broadcasters embed in the audio portion of their programming using encoders provided by BBM and Arbitron. At the end of each day, the survey participants place the meters into base stations that recharge the devices and send the collected codes to BBM for tabulation. The PPM can measure exposure to any electronic media, which has audio that can be encoded- television, cable, and radio, even cinema advertising and in-store media.
