Arbitron Commercializes Miami-Fort Lauderdale PPM

RADIO ONLINE | , , | :am CT

Arbitron commercialized its Portable People Meter (PPM) electronic radio ratings service in Miami-Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday. The early rollout was prompted by Florida's Attorney General, who filed lawsuit on Tuesday to stop the release entirely. Arbitron declared the estimates for June, 2009 and the preceding three months as currency.

"The PPM radio audience estimates for this market may be used as the basis for buy/sell transactions of radio commercial time among subscribing stations, agencies and advertisers," Arbitron said in a release. In addition, the April and May PPM survey months, which Arbitron had previously released as "pre-currency" information, are now designated as "currency."

"We are commercializing our Portable People Meter radio ratings service in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood in order to meet our obligations to our customers and to the radio industry at large," said president/CEO Michael Skarzynski.

"The industry needs current estimates of the radio audience in the nation's largest markets to facilitate an efficient buy-sell process for radio advertising," continued Skarzynski. "Our goal with the commercialization of the PPM is to help radio remain competitive in an increasingly challenging media marketplace."