Florida AG Attempts to Block Arbitron

Florida Attorney General (AG) Bill McCollum has filed a lawsuit against Arbitron, claiming that its Portable People Meter (PPM) methodology undercounts minority listeners. His is the fourth such case to be brought against the firm.

McCollum has asked a state court in Miami to prevent the release of PPM data - which he describes as 'flawed' - until Arbitron is awarded Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation. However, Arbitron pre-empted the suit yesterday, by announcing that it has already commercialised its service for the Miami-Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood market.

The firm has classified both the Tampa and Miami markets as 'high-density black' and 'high-density Hispanic', but has yet to receive MRC accreditation in Florida.

Like previous opponents, McCollum claims that Arbitron's sampling methodology produces unreliable ratings, and his lawsuit alleges that releasing ratings in the area will negatively impact stations that air programming targeted at minorities; preventing them from competing for advertising revenue.

In his filing, McCollum cites the New York radio market where ratings for minority broadcasters have fallen between 40% and 60% since the introduction of PPM in October 2008.

'Pre-currency' ratings have already been produced in Miami, where ratings have shown decreases for several minority broadcasters. McCollum said that ad agencies in the area are already attempting to negotiate ad price reductions of between 30% and 50% from the minority broadcasters because of these initial findings.

'In its rush to deploy a lucrative new product, Arbitron has apparently determined that accurately measuring minority radio audiences is too expensive,' states the suit. 'No matter how sophisticated the PPM is, the audience estimates it produces will be misleading if Arbitron does not recruit, train and retain a sample panel that is reflective of the diversity in a particular radio market and if those in the sample panel do not faithfully and properly use their PPM devices.'

McCollum said that if Arbitron continues its roll out of PPM-collected data, it will violate Florida law because it has not received MRC accreditation. He claims that the firm could be liable for a fine of $10,000 for each violation, and has asked the court to block Arbitron from releasing the data in the state until it receives the accreditation.

Arbitron's PPM service is currently facing investigations by the FCC and the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The firm recently resolved lawsuits brought by the Attorneys General of New York and New Jersey relating to its implementation of the PPM service in those markets.

Web site: www.arbitron.com .