Minority groups unimpressed with PPM plan

US-- The Spanish Radio Association (SRA) and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) have expressed “disappointment and frustration” with Arbitron's promise to upgrade its portable people meter (PPM) radio ratings service.

In a joint statement, the associations said pledged improvements in the areas of cell-phone-only sampling, address-based sampling, in-tab compliance rates and response metrics “will not cure the problems that have caused PPM data to be skewed and unreliable”.

“Arbitron has done nothing more than assure the public that, at some point in the next two years, it will address the glaring flaws in its PPM methodology,” said SRA and NABOB, which have led complaints that the new ratings system under-represents ethnic minorities.

Many of the planned improvements – announced last week by Arbitron CEO Michael Skarzynski – extend commitments the company made in New York and New Jersey to all PPM markets.

SRA and NABOB conceded this was “a good first step” but said it was “not sufficient if Arbitron is truly committed to transforming PPM into a reliable audience measurement service”.

For instance, it said the plan to increase cell-phone-only sampling to 15% by 2011 does not even reflect the current estimate of the number of cell-only homes in the US. “It will become even less representative over the next two years,” the associations said.

They also criticised plans to only use address-based sampling to reach cell-only homes while landline-only homes will continue to be approached through a telephone sample frame and telephone recruitment. This method, they said, leads to “skewed sampling” as some segments of minority communities are “disproportionately likely to decline to participate” when contacted by phone. Instead, NABOB and SRA want address-based in-person recruiting.

Arbitron was quick to brush off the attack. A spokesman told Research: “We made our statement on Monday last. No reason for us to elaborate.”

Author: James Verrinder