Report: Nielsen Releases CBET Rollout Schedule

During an webiner for clients Thursday, Nielsen released tentative schedule to upgrade markets to its enhanced CBET.

RadioWorld reports CBET is at the heart of the firm’s PPM system used in radio ratings, which has been at the center of industry controversy thanks to reported widespread use of the Voltair monitor/processor that seeks to compensate for alleged PPM shortcomings. Nielsen previously said it planned to increase its “code density” via a software update to existing PPM field encoders to improve the watermark algorithm. It said it would do so for all 11,000 stations; the schedule announced this week is the next step.

The company last week shared its methodology for development and rollout of a new version of its Critical Band Encoding Technology will go live in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore markets on Monday (Oct. 12).

Encoding upgrades will happen in other markets on the following rolling basis:

New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and Seattle are scheduled for Nov. 2; followed by Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Boston, Providence, Hartford and Salt Lake City on Nov. 5; and Dallas-Fort Worth, Minneapolis, Cincinnati and Houston on Nov. 10.

Then Atlanta, Indianapolis, Portland, Phoenix, San Antonio, St. Louis, San Diego and Sacramento will upgrade Nov. 13; Nashville, Memphis, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Norfolk and Raleigh are slated for Nov. 18; and Tampa, Orlando, Austin, Greensboro, Las Vegas, West Palm Beach and Miami will upgrade Nov. 30.

InsideRadio reports large number of stations are likely to experience slight gains in their AQH ratings. Field testing in the Baltimore-Washington, DC market found more than half (52%) of the demo/daypart combinations tested in afternoon drive had an AQH ratings increase, compared to 48% in morning drive and 45% in middays.

As Nielsen begins rolling out new and improved PPM encoders it's logical  to wonder how do they stack up against the infamous Voltair unit that brought the encoding issue to the industry’s attention in such a dramatic fashion this year? Nielsen says both units produced indices that were “roughly equivalent.”