• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 24, 2009

This week's news from Univision might be categorized as "the good, the (sort of) bad, and the ugly," as the national Hispanic TV network announced new, expanded deals for carriage with Cox Communications; projected more revenue declines in the second quarter, but smaller than previously feared; and escalated its high-profile dispute with radio ratings firm Arbitron over its new electronic measurement service.

Taking the good news first, Univision said Wednesday that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Cox Communications renewing a deal for carriage of Univision broadcast and cable content, including broadcast nets Univision and TeleFutura and its cable property Galavision. The deal covers affiliated stations owned by Entravision Communications and Equity Media Holdings; it also provides for the launch of a new VOD service, Univision on Demand.

Both partners touted Cox's distribution capabilities in areas with large Hispanic populations, including San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas.

The bad news had a familiar ring, as Univision revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that, like most big media companies, it anticipates more revenue declines in the second quarter of 2009. However, the company's management now believes that in percentage terms, these declines will only be in the low- to mid-single digits. Its estimates follow much steeper drops at other broadcasters.

Finally the ugly news: not satisfied by Arbitron's attempts to improve sample methodology for its Portable People Meter, a passive electronic measurement device, Univision is still refusing to subscribe to PPM or encode its audio signals in new markets scheduled to "go live" with PPM next month, including Miami, San Diego, and Phoenix.

This is widely viewed as a negotiating tactic, as Univision and Arbitron haggle over the high cost of subscriptions. Still, the refusal of a leading Spanish-language broadcaster to encode audio signals in some of the nation's largest Hispanic markets presents serious problems for advertisers and other broadcasters that rely on PPM as a currency for media transactions.

With a big chunk of the market going unmeasured, it's harder to assess each broadcaster's relative share and competitive advantages in certain dayparts and demos. This, in turn, sows confusion and disagreement about pricing, as buyers and sellers naturally try to move price points in opposite directions.

Indeed, it would appear that the dispute over PPM samples is only growing worse. For at least a year, now minority broadcasters -- the owners of radio stations with formats targeting African-American and Hispanic audiences, including Univision -- have been complaining that Arbitron's PPM sample methodology under-represents their audiences, leading to large apparent drops in audience size.

After settling civil rights lawsuits brought by the attorneys general of New York, New Jersey and Maryland, Arbitron received a further setback earlier this year with the opening of an inquiry by the Federal Communications Commission.