'Cell Phone Onlies' Gain Sway In Ratings Measurement

On the heels of a Jacobs Media study that indicates that a growing number of young rock listeners are "cell phone onlies" and don't have home landlines (thereby eliminating their potential impact from Arbitron's current diary-based survey system), another ratings company says it will include those households in its upcoming surveys.

The Media Audit/Ipsos ratings collaboration has announced that it will include "cell phone only" households in its media measurement panel, something that Arbitron is currently doing only in its Portable People Meter survey in Houston.

Media Audit/Ipsos is one of three finalists in the bid for electronic media measurement in America. They will conduct a series of four tests on its smart cell phone measurement technology in Houston beginning in early May.

"For many consumers, particularly, the young mobile demographic, the cell phone has displaced the landline in many households" Media Audit president Bob Jordan said in a prepared statement.

"We are also seeing a strong trend to 'cell only' in the Hispanic and black markets," Jordan added. "These are key demographic groups for media measurement."

Arbitron also recognizes the importance of those households, VP/communications Thom Mocarsky tells Billboard Radio Monitor. "Arbitron would like to take this opportunity to point out that households which are 'cell phone only' are already included TODAY in the PPM sample of 2000 individuals that is up and running in Houston. Going forward, Arbitron plans to include 'cell phone only' households in the samples we draw for every PPM market that we deploy."