Numeris (formerly the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement, or BBM Canada) is a Canadian

audience measurement Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Sometim ...

organization. Established on May 11, 1944 as a division of the

Canadian Association of Broadcasters The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is a trade association representing the interests of commercial radio and television broadcasters in Canada. It is co-located with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council in Ottawa. It was first ...

, Numeris is the primary provider of viewership numbers for television and radio broadcasters in Canada.

History

Numeris was founded by the

on May 11, 1944 as the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement. In 1964, it became the first ratings service in the world to introduce computerized sample selection. In 2004, the organization began a joint venture with

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

to adopt its

Portable People Meter The Portable People Meter (PPM), also known as the Nielsen Meter, was a system developed by Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) to measure how many people are exposed or listening to individual radio stations and television stations, including cable tel ...

system for television audience measurement. The organization officially shortened its name to BBM Canada in 2001; despite this, many outlets still referred to the organization under its previous name. In late December 2011, BBM sued Canadian technology company

Research in Motion BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian software company specializing in cybersecurity. Founded in 1984, it was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM). As RIM, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablet ...

for

trademark infringement Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attached to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the licence). Infringement may ...

, as it uses the "BBM" acronym to refer to its

BlackBerry Messenger BBM, also known by its full name BlackBerry Messenger, was a proprietary mobile instant messenger and videotelephony application included on BlackBerry devices that allows messaging and voice calls between BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, iOS, Andr ...

service. The organization alleged that it had received phone calls from users who believed that they were affiliated with RIM. RIM objected to the lawsuit, arguing that both companies were in unrelated industries. The suit was dismissed in 2012 by Canadian federal courts as being without merit. BBM Canada ultimately chose to adopt a different name. On June 19, 2014, BBM Canada re-branded as Numeris, unveiling a new logo designed by the agency Cundari, along with a new slogan, "Audiences Count". The company felt that the BBM name, especially given the continued use of its full name by media outlets, evoked visions of "surveys and bureaucracy" that were inconsistent with its modern operation. On August 28, 2022, Numeris ceased publication of TV Topline Reports.

Radio

In radio, Numeris is the main provider of ratings services. The company has traditionally used a

diary A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...

-based system for tracking radio audience habits and this system is still used in most markets. In

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

and

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

ratings are now measured using the

(PPM) technology.

Television

In television, Numeris is partnered with the American company Nielsen in a joint venture which measures the Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal Anglo and Montreal Franco markets,http://assets.numeris.ca/Documents/DataReleaseSchedules/2014-15_TV_All_2014-15Measured_Markets.pdf the Ontario region and national ratings figures via Portable People Meters. Numeris is the senior partner in the joint venture, and also continues to independently monitor some markets — primarily the

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

television market in Quebec, and some smaller media markets — which are not served by the joint operation, through diaries.

References

External links

* Market research companies of Canada Audience measurement 1944 establishments in Canada Radio organizations in Canada Television organizations in Canada {{Canada-bcast-stub

History

Radio

Television

See also

References

External links