Arbitron Copyright Policy Legal Lowdown 7-21-03!

"Publications such as R&R, AllAccess are licensed to publish our data. Reporters who are writing stories in their local markets have a limited license to use our data for one time use in stories and are restricted to our fair use policy, which you have read. Other websites that link to R&R may do so according to R&Rs copyright policy, but may not link directly to Arbitron data. The licenses cover ONLY those individual publications we have agreed to release the data to. The 12+ numbers are available for use, with the understanding that Arbitron owns the data and may exact control over their use.

"Those websites that link to another page that is licensed is in violation of our copyright policy."

OK, so there you go. This includes all other websites I don't have to name.

Re: Sourcing Arbitron Inc.'s Numbers 7-19-03!

Reporters are welcome to use the Arbitron web site as a source of information for stories about radio, local market consumer behavior, webcast audiences and all the other types of information and studies we provide. All we ask is that you properly source the information that is provided to you on this site."

Then you scroll down and you'll see a FAQ: "Where Are The Radio Ratings?"

Arbitron does not post its local market radio ratings on this web site. Reporters who need local market radio ratings for a news story should call Jessica Benbow at (410) 312-8363 or e-mail a request to press@arbitron.com. To understand what we provide to news reporters and what constitutes "fair use" of our copyrighted estimates, please read our guidelines document.

So I click on the Guidelines document and went to another page that basically describes what you can and cannot post in a news story. It basically states that Arbitron is willing to grant to newspapers such as U-T and other publications that write about radio such as news or other informational subjects a nonexclusive license to publish a limited, newsworthy amount of copyrighted data.

It sounds like you can post Arbitron ratings data for the 12+ demographic, but a further reading of the page states that only the estimates of the 12+ standings may be published regardless of the source of the information.

For all other demographic information, however, (25-54, Men 27-33, etc.), you can't post the actual numbers per se, as this is the kind of information that makes Arbitron money from the radio stations that pay them to compile the data. Instead, reporting websites and news organizations can post only how the stations ranked in the demographic such as Station DFSX is #1 in Men 25-54 or that Radio "Dismal" is #1 in Girls 12-14, but you can't say that DFSX got a rating of (bleep) in Men 25-54.

All tables of estimates and rankers must be accompanied by the appropriate copyright notice (e.g., Copyright 2001, Arbitron Inc).

Then another fun part begins. If you're quoting the estimates and rankers without estimates, they all must be properly sourced to the survey period such as Spring 2003, demographic such as Persons 12+, daypart such as Mon-Fri 6am-10am, and survey area such as San Diego.

Also on the page are examples of what is and is not allowed to be published as far as turning the Arbitron data into a news story goes. It basicially states that "fair use" restricts a news organization to cover the relative posting of no more than three competeting stations in a radio market in the context of a news story. One story example used three, but the other used nine, which is not allowed.

A subscribing station can use our data to promote its performance per its license with Arbitron. Should a station provide your publication with an 18-34 or 25-54 ranker, you may use the information as background for a story about the station. A station cannot, however, give you permission to reprint the estimates as a ranker for all the other stations in its market.

In other words, 91X can say that they're #whatever in the Male 18-34 to any news organization for publication; the editor retains the right to refuse to publish the data. 91X can't give the radio news website permission to repost the actual Arbitron data for the demographic.

I've received a few Arbitron data e-mails from several radio people for publication. Although a radio station can share whatever they wish to share, Cal Radio News has a policy to not post the data or rankings of any demographic outside the 12+ group, which is the only group that really matters as far as I'm concerned. Why a radio station cares so much for being #1 in a niche demographic, but #30 overall, is basically a losers way of trying to spin doctor its pathetic performance into something that's working, but guess what the news is, folks. If a lot of people don't care about the station enough to make it in the top half of the rankings overall, the station sucks, period.

Arbitron: Time to Modernize The Ratings 7-19-03!

The data and rankings for the 12+ numbers are basically useless to Cal Radio News because it doesn't cover the complete picture of the San Diego audience's radio listening habits.

For example, in the Morning, I listen to Bob & Tom show from 3-7am on a radio station streaming on the Internet (I tape it while I sleep, then wake up after 7am and play the show back). In my car, I tune in KNX and KFMB for the latest news and weather, then turn off the car radio and turn on XM Satellite radio and listen to BPM dance 81 or Laugh USA 151.

At work, you can listen to many Internet radio stations on your computer in your cubicle or workstation. Since many local radio signals can't penetrate the thick walls in the buildings, the option to stream on the Internet is a way to get the listeners to tune in in places where AM and FM radios cannot pick up the regular signals. Since most of the San Diego radio stations don't stream their music anymore due to other issues I don't need to name here but are well known, out of market radio stations streaming on the web, as well as many Internet-only stations, have taken over the time listeners spend listening to their favorite music or information. When they get home from work, they can listen to the same radio stations streaming on the Internet on their own home computers.

If Arbitron decides to expand their San Diego radio surveys to include XM and Internet radio, then they will see proof for themselves that the radio station universe is still limited, but listeners have a bigger choice of radio stations to choose from amongst those who use satellite, Internet, and AM/FM. Which of the non local AM/FM stations are popular in San Diego is a job that Arbitron should start doing. Since they already own the Measurecast Internet-ratings system, they can break them down by local market, locate the Internet radio stations that get at least a 0.05 rating from the San Diego market, and merge them into their regular AM/FM Arbitron surveys. It's just that simple.

Merging the local Internet and satellite radio data into the regular AM/FM surveys based on market will give the reporters a more complete picture of the radio listener's habits and a better perspective on the changing picture of the average local radio fan. With more people getting Satellite radio, and broadband and wireless Internet literally blanketing San Diego, surely there's a significant amount of people here who listen to a particluar non local AM/FM station in San Diego, enough to put at least two of them above half of the local broadcasters in the rankings.

What do you think of this?