• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 14, 2004

Viacom's Infinity Broadcasting unit this week is expected to announce it has tapped Tony Jarvis as its new research chief, sources said. Jarvis, an influential media researcher on Madison Avenue, most recently was senior vice president-director of strategic insights at Grey Worldwide's MediaCom Worldwide unit where he was known as an outspoken advocate of Arbitron's controversial portable people meter system for radio and TV audience measurement.

Infinity, one of the nation's largest radio broadcasters, had been opposing Arbitron's test of the PPM system in Houston, but recently agreed to participate and encode its radio broadcasts.

Jarvis joins a family of prominent Viacom researchers, including CBS Executive Vice President-Research and Planning David Poltrack, another advocate of the PPM; and Betsy Frank, another former agency media researcher who was recently promoted to executive vice president, research and planning for Viacom's cable networks, film and publishing units from research chief at MTV Networks.