This morning at the RAB2007 conference in Dallas, The Media Audit/Ipsos announced that they will receive millions of dollars from broadcasters to test the Smart Cell Phone ratings system in the Houston market. Companies including Clear Channel, Cox, Cumulus, Entercom and Radio One have all agreed to support a test of the ratings technology with a study that will include 2,500 Smart Cell Phone-carrying respondents. If the test goes well, The Media Audit/Ipsos says it could expand the technology to the Top 10 markets by the end of 2008 and the Top 50 markets by the end of 2009.

“We have been studying electronic media measurement for several years” said Media Audit President Bob Jordan. “Getting people to cooperate in a panel is critical for reliable and credible research. We conducted extensive surveys and tests that indicated the cell phone was by far the preferable monitoring device. Recent developments with the Smart Cell Phone meant that we were able to take advantage of cell phone technology for an advanced monitoring system.  Our studies show that the cell phone will dramatically improve the accuracy of the information being collected. We are working with Verizon and Cingular (AT&T) right now and expect to cut agreements with Sprint/Nextel and T-Mobile in the very near future.”

“Aside from stronger respondent cooperation, The Media Audit/Ipsos Smart Cell Phone solution has many competitive advantages” added Jim Higginbotham, Chairman and head of research at The Media Audit. “Advertisers and their ad agencies want multi-media measurement so they can see radio in the context of the multi-media environment and that is what the Smart Cell Phone system will deliver."

Analyst Jim Boyle believes that the funding of the Smart Phone by holdouts from Arbitron's competing PPM is a negotiation tactic by the radio companies. Boyle says the radio owners are using the Media Audit/Ipsos deal as leverage to influence Arbitron's PPM pricing.