Arbitron chief promises improvements to PPM radio ratings system
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US-- New Arbitron CEO Michael Skarzynski has promised to work with critics of the firm's portable people meter (PPM) radio ratings service and pledged a wave of methodological improvements to the service.
In a letter to Senator Robert Menendez, the co-chair of the Senate's Democratic Hispanic Task Force, Skarzynski said the firm was set to “meet or exceed” terms of the settlement agreements that were signed with the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey following complaints of flaws in the system.
Concerns were that ethnic minority audiences were being underrepresented in the new measurement service, and to counter these fears Arbitron agreed to make improvements in the areas of cell-phone-only sampling, address-based sampling, in-tab compliance rates and response metrics.
Skarzynski said in his letter to Menendez that all PPM markets would now benefit from these “key methodological enhancements”, though there will be “some variation in metrics and milestones based on particulars of the local market environments”.
He made further detailed commitments, which can be read in full here.
Menendez had earlier called on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Arbitron over allegations that minority audiences were underrepresented in the new measurement service.
Skarzynski said in his letter to the senator: “I am committed to continue our focus on and to resolve satisfactorily the concerns of all our PPM market customers.”
• Arbitron has announced today a deal with Gap Broadcasting to provide diary-based radio ratings services in 17 US markets.
Author: James Verrinder
Related links:
Arbitron plans cell-only sampling for all markets in 2009
AHAA accuses Arbitron of ‘indifference' over PPM concerns
