Filing Claims That PPM is ''Flawed and Unreliable''

RADIO ONLINE | , , | :am CT

In a filing with the FCC, the PPM Coalition says that because of PPM, Arbitron's new electronic measurement system, ratings for minority broadcasters in New York have fallen 40-60% since October. The PPMC claims that PPM has several fundamental problems leading to "flawed and unreliable sampling of minority and other audiences."

PPMC's filing also alleges that Arbitron's telephone-based sample includes only households with listed landline numbers. "Those with unlisted numbers, no telephones, and cell-phone-only users are excluded from the main sample," PPMC alleges. "Arbitron has deemed that address-based methodology too expensive" and has "rolled out the cheaper service that has repeatedly flunked accreditation."

The coalition also claims that Arbitron's separate cell-phone-only sample is too small and that the ratings company "drastically under-samples cell-phone-only households, which are disproportionately young and minority." 25% of Hispanics live in cell phone-only households, as do 21.4% of African Americans, and 41.5% of those aged 25-29. "Yet Arbitron's sample panel currently includes only 10% cell-phone-only users," PPMC maintains.

The filing also alleges that "Arbitron has proved unable to meet its own internal metrics for minority participation in its sample panels." For example, the filing says, "Arbitron recruited only 64% of the Black panelists it was seeking in Los Angeles in April and just 59% of the Black panelists it was seeking in Detroit."

In conclusion, PPMC says measurement as currently marketed by Arbitron is not "accurate or reliable." "Arbitron has violated the trust that the Commission, Congress and the broadcast industry have placed in it by deploying a new deeply flawed PPM methodology," said PPMC.