Clear Channel Issues RFP for New Ratings System

Yahoo: A number of recent independent studies have shown that radio offers better performance and more value for advertisers' dollars, which is in direct contrast to  numbers collected and reported by Arbitron. As a result of this continuing discrepancy, Clear Channel Radio issued a request for proposals yesterday to create a new state-of-the-art radio ratings system for measuring terrestrial radio audiences that will credibly represent radio's true performance and value to advertisers as well as accurately determine listener levels.

"Radio is a powerful, effective medium whose influence and reach have been underreported and diluted," said John Hogan, CEO of Clear Channel Radio..."But as an industry, we need to make quicker progress. Advertisers and media buyers deserve credible, accurate information on radio's value. Something as powerful as radio needs powerful, technologically current evaluations."

Up till now, Arbitron's Personal Diary System (where listeners manually recall and record what they've listened to) has been the only ratings-system research method available to media buyers to measure the effectiveness of radio for nearly 40 years and is quite antiquated in the ubiquitous internet era...An inefficient or inaccurate system can lead to underreporting and skewed data...Even worse, the diary system results can take up to a month before they're made available, which can seem like an eternity when compared to realtime statistics. The accuracy and credibility of the diary method has come under increasing skepticism over the past several years and an upgrade or replacement is long overdue...