MUMBAI: Nielsen Media Research will soon be entering the radio ratings business in the United States, according to the New York Times.
In a deal to be announced on Tuesday, the radio broadcaster Cumulus Media will start relying on Nielsen’s measurements of 50 of its small and midsize markets in the third quarter of 2009. Clear Channel Radio will use the Nielsen data for 17 of the markets, says the report.
Nielsen, perhaps best known for television ratings, already measures radio audiences in other countries. In the United States, Nielsen will be in direct competition with Arbitron, the country’s leading supplier of radio ratings data. Stations use ratings to sell advertising time.
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Nielsen will produce ratings by collecting diaries from respondents. Arbitron’s effort to gradually replace diaries with an electronic form of measurement, personal people meters, has led some station owners to complain, the report adds.
