Do Arbitron’s national ratings include any digital listening?

Technically yes, but the impact is minimal. Arbitron has only just started to include HD and Streaming listening (from PPM-measured markets) into its national broadcast ratings. In the next national survey – Fall 2011 which will be released in March – the ratings will include listening to HD & Streaming, not that anyone will notice (for example, Morning Editionmight get a boost of around 50,000 weekly listeners on top of its existing 13 million).

Why will we not see a significant boost from digital listening?

Measuring exposure is one thing (and the PPM does that quite well), but including that listening into the ratings (which are based on broadcast listening behavior) is another matter. The PPM can collect listening data from new forms of radio (HD, Internet streaming), but it struggles to capture audio from devices that requires a headset such as a smartphone or a mp3 player. The PPM also has complicated rules for crediting time-delayed or partial-show listening (podcasts/downloads) and cannot collect any data for services that are not encoded (XM/Sirius), nor any programs that do not exist as a broadcast (i.e. NPR’s Planet Money).

The other part of the story here is that listening to audio via radio is still the most dominant platform. While NPR and Public Radio content can be accessed in many different ways, NPR raises its revenue (almost exclusively) through underwriting and programming fees based on Arbitron broadcast ratings. The digital forms have yet to reach a critical mass, though every indicator suggests this will happen soon.