• Mediaweek, Monday, June 22, 2009 9:45 AM

On July 16 Arbitron will publish its first portable people meter ratings in Miami, San Diego, and Phoenix, three top Hispanic markets where Univision Communications has not subscribed to the service and has refused to encode its signals.

In order for the PPM to measure a radio station's audience, the station must be encoded, leaving Arbitron dependent on the kindness of its customers. But Univision, which has seen ratings slide in PPM in markets such as New York and Los Angeles, has declined to cooperate. Ceril Shagrin, Univision executive vice president says Univision will "work with advertisers, look at sales information [and] maybe do some primary research."
For Arbitron, Univision's action represents a currency crisis. It will leave buyers and planners without a complete picture of radio listening in those markets. Hispanics "are an important consumer to hit and we don't want to exclude them," says an agency exec. Horizon is among the shops devising their own estimates.

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