Hispanic broadcaster Univision Radio signs multi-year PPM deal

The deal covers 44 Univision stations that are on air across New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Jose, Dallas, Miami, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Antonio and Austin.

Ceril Shagrin, EVP of audience measurement innovation and analytics at parent company Univision Communications, said: “Reliable ratings data are vitally important for all stakeholders in the radio marketplace. Based on the steps taken by Arbitron to date to improve the PPM service, and on Arbitron’s commitment to continue its current efforts to improve the service, we concluded that we could begin subscribing to the PPM service again.”

In mid-2008, Univision was one of the founding members of the Spanish Radio Council, an industry body that voiced concerns over the “harmful” PPM system, claiming that the technology undercounted their audiences – which in turn impacted their advertising revenue.

A year later, Univision announced that it would not be renewing its PPM contracts or encoding its content so that it could be picked up by Arbitron’s devices. However, in April this year the broadcaster announced that it had starting encoding its content in five markets, but would not be signing up to receive ratings data in the regions.

Carol Hanley, Arbitron’s EVP and chief sales and marketing officer, said: “Univision Radio’s commitment to the PPM radio ratings service is one more vote of confidence in the value and utility of Arbitron’s electronic ratings for radio. We are grateful for the support and, as part of our renewed partnership with Univision Radio, we will work together to promote the value of radio to agencies, advertisers and the communities it serves.”