Minority Groups Unhappy with Arbitron Promises

In the US, The Spanish Radio Association (SRA) and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) have expressed their 'disappointment and frustration' with Arbitron's recent promises to upgrade its PPM sampling methodology.

Earlier in the year, Arbitron signed settlement agreements with New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who had both previously claimed that PPM undercounts the listening habits of minority groups. At the time, Arbitron agreed to incorporate a number of actions to improve its recruitment of minority panellists.

As part of this agreement, the ratings giant recently announced it will be rolling out methodological enhancements from New Jersey, New York and Maryland to all PPM markets.

However, in response, SRA and NABOB said that the company's promises will not 'cure the problems that have caused PPM data to be skewed and unreliable'. Previously, NABOB Executive Director Jim Winston had seemed to imply that the key issue was the national roll-out of the terms from the NY and NJ settlements, commenting: 'NABOB will ask Arbitron to agree to the terms negotiated in New York and Philadelphia for every market in which it has rolled-out, or is planning to roll-out, PPM. Absent an agreement by Arbitron to make this a nationwide settlement, this battle will continue.'

The most recent statement from the groups says Arbitron 'has done nothing more than assure the public that, at some point in the next two years, it will address the most glaring flaws in its PPM methodology'.

Both claim that Arbitron's plans for cellphone-only sampling are still behind 'the current realities of the market,' and that the company's in-tab compliance rates do not address their issues of compliance for young and ethnic PPM panelists. In addition, the pair believe that Arbitron's promises fall short in the areas of address-based sampling and response rates (Sample Performance Indicator - SPI), which they say is 'one of the most important indicators of the sample's representativeness to a given population'.

According to Frank Flores, General Manager of broadcaster SBS New York, SRA and NABOB were not consulted prior to Arbitron's latest announcement.

'We've been working in earnest with Arbitron to communicate what we view as the most critical shortcomings of its PPM sampling methodology,' stated Flores. 'Arbitron's implication that we are satisfied with its latest promises is disingenuous and simply not true. It reflects what we have long feared: Arbitron will exploit its unregulated monopoly position to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, regardless of the harm it inflicts on its customers.'

NABOB is currently seeking a congressional investigation, and has been in discussions with Senator Robert Menendez, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, to progress this.

Web sites: www.nabob.org and www.arbitron.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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