• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 31, 2011

In a major step forward for the Portable People Meter, Arbitron's passive electronic measurement system for radio exposure has received accreditation from the Media Rating Council in 11 new markets around the country, bringing the total number of PPM markets with MRC accreditation to 14.

The MRC granted accreditation to PPM in markets including Atlanta; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Kansas City; Milwaukee-Racine; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo; St. Louis and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.

Previously, PPM was already accredited in Houston-Galveston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Riverside-San Bernardino.

The MRC also granted accreditation to Arbitron's PPM Analysis Tool, which allows clients to produce standard audience analysis reports, including rankers, trend reports and audience composition reports, using monthly average-quarter-hour PPM data. They can also analyze audience estimates based on customized demographics and dayparts.

However, the PPM system was denied MRC accreditation in all the 34 remaining markets where it has also been introduced by Arbitron. That suggests the dominant radio ratings firm still has a long way to go toward its stated goal of gaining accreditation in every market where PPM is employed.

Still, the new MRC accreditation is a major sign of progress for Arbitron, which previously battled with clients over failure to obtain accreditation outside of a few select markets.

Lack of MRC accreditation provided additional ammunition to minority broadcasters, which contended that flawed sampling methodologies were causing Arbitron to undercount their audiences in PPM ratings. Most of these issues appear to have been resolved last year after hearings in front of a congressional committee and some high-profile management changes at Arbitron.