Back to description of Total Line Reporting Initiative
Effective with the Winter 2006 survey, Arbitron began offering Total Line Reporting to stations that simulcast all content 100% throughout the survey. Total Line Reporting completely replaced Arbitron's previous simulcasting guidelines. It is available in all syndicated markets in the United States and Puerto Rico. The following Q&A may prove helpful in assisting stations to select the most appropriate options and may provide helpful information to all report users.
Q: What is "Total Line Reporting"?
A: Stations that simulcast 100% are eligible to have their combined listening reported under a single set of call letters in all of Arbitron's local market services—without individual stations being reported.
Q: What if the stations simulcast almost everything, but not quite 100%?
A: The stations must simulcast all content 100% (including programming, commercials, and Public Service Announcements). If each combo were to be granted a different exception, report users wouldn't be able to have confidence that the audience estimates represent the combined listening of all the stations in the combo.
Q: Are Total Line Reporting combos limited to two-station simulcasts, as was the case under prior simulcast guidelines?
A: No. Total Line Reporting is able to accommodate three-way simulcasts, four-way simulcasts, etc., provided all of the stations in the combo simulcast 100% and are home to the same market or adjacent markets.
Q: Is Total Line Reporting available for ArbitrendsSM?
A: For new combos, Total Line Reporting will first be applied to Phase 2 Arbitrends. Thereafter, Total Line Reporting will be applied to each Arbitrends release, as well as the quarterly Radio Market Report/Arbitron eBookSM.
Q: Is Total Line Reporting available on a monthly basis for stations that are home to a PPM™ Metro?
A: No. To be eligible for Total Line Reporting for any PPM survey month, stations must simulcast all programming 100% throughout the three-month interval corresponding to Arbitron's quarterly survey period. (A station's Total Line Reporting status from the preceding Fall quarterly survey period is applied for the Holiday PPM survey month.)
Q: Who decides under which call letters the combo's estimates are reported?
A: The combo chooses which station in the partnership will be the "primary" station. All estimates will be reported with that station's call letters.
Q: How do report users know which stations have chosen Total Line Reporting?
A: That information appears on the "Station Information" and "Special Notices" pages of the Radio Market Report/Arbitron eBook, and on a special page on the Arbitron Web site that includes information on all simulcast stations. The Web site address is www.arbitron.com/radio_stations/stationinformation/total_line.htm.
Q: What if a combo doesn't want its estimates combined?
A: Total Line Reporting is completely voluntary. If the combo wants to see individual station estimates, it should not request Total Line Reporting.
Q: Are there any potential disadvantages to Total Line Reporting for a combo that wants its estimates combined?
A: For a combo's first survey with Total Line Reporting, prior survey trends will be those of the primary station only.
For example: If WAAA and WBBB begin Total Line Reporting for Summer 2009—and WAAA is chosen as the primary station—estimates for Summer 2009 will reflect combined listening to WAAA and WBBB, but prior-survey trends will reflect listening only to WAAA. A four-book average would average four surveys of listening to WAAA and one survey (Summer 2009) of listening to WBBB. The combo will begin building combined trends, however, so by Spring 2010, the four-book average would reflect the average of four surveys of WAAA listening and four surveys of WBBB listening.
Q: Why aren't prior-survey trends available for the combo immediately?
A: Every individual station is assigned a unique code that computer software associates with that particular station. In the above example, WBBB's listening for Summer 2009 will be "flipped" to WAAA after listening has been credited but before any audience estimates have been processed. From the perspective of the software that processes audience estimates, all of the listening to both stations will be associated with WAAA. The software will read WAAA's unique computer code and retrieve WAAA's prior-survey trends. Since there will be no current-survey estimates reported under WBBB's call letters, however, the software won't be reading WBBB's unique computer code, and therefore won't be retrieving WBBB's prior-survey trends from before Summer 2009.
Q: What if a combo that requests Total Line Reporting changes its mind?
A: If we haven't begun processing audience estimates for the survey, we can change the combo's status from simulcast to nonsimulcast. Once the estimates are combined, however, it will not be possible even for Arbitron to view the individual station estimates for that survey.
Q: What about changing status from Total Line Reporting one survey to individual station reporting the next survey?
A: Stations can certainly do that. Any non-primary station in the combo, however, will have to begin building trends again to get a multibook average, and the only prior-survey trends for non-primary stations will be for surveys in which the stations weren't treated as simulcast.
For example, assume that primary station WAAA and partner WBBB are reported as nonsimulcast for Spring 2009, then choose Total Line Reporting for Summer 2009, and revert back to individual station reporting for Fall 2009. In the Fall 2009 book, WAAA and WBBB will be reported as individual stations for Fall 2009. There will be no prior-survey trends for WBBB for Summer 2009, however, and no four-book average will be published for WBBB.
Q: What happens if the simulcast partners are home to adjacent markets?
A: Estimates will be reported under the call letters of the same station (the primary station) in each market in which the combo meets Minimum Reporting Standards. If the primary station is home to the Metro, the estimates will be listed "above-the-line," as home to the Metro. If the primary station is not home to the Metro, estimates will be listed "below-the-line," as outside the Metro.
Q: What about translators? Do they need to be included as part of a Total Line Reporting combo?
A: Listening to a translator is credited directly to its "parent" station. Accordingly, translators do not need to be included in a Total Line Reporting combo. You may contact Arbitron's Station Relations department at (410) 312-8062 to submit information about translators on which your station broadcasts.
Q: Are digital radio stations eligible for Total Line Reporting?
A: Yes. Each HD-primary (HD1) station is automatically entered into a Total Line Reporting combo with its respective "parent" analog station.
Combos including an HD-multicast and/or an Internet Stream must also include an AM or FM station and must select an AM or FM station as the "primary" station. Digital radio stations are subject to the same Total Line Reporting guidelines as analog AM and FM stations. All stations in the combo must simulcast 100% (including all programming, commercials, and Public Service Announcements) and must be home to the same market or adjacent markets.
Q: Are the simulcasting rules that were used prior to Total Line Reporting still in effect for stations that simulcast less than 100%?
A: No. Total Line Reporting has completely replaced the "old" simulcasting rules.
Q: Where can I go for additional information?
A: You may address inquiries to Brian Stauffer at Arbitron in Columbia, MD, by calling (410) 312-8045 or e-mailing brian.stauffer@arbitron.com. Please include your name and phone number with any e-mail inquiries.
ArbitrendsSM, Arbitron eBookSM, and PPM™ are marks of Arbitron Inc.
Last updated: 8.7.09