• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 10, 2007

It's a bad sign when a media fight goes to Congress.

The latest swipe at Arbitron came from Jim Winston, executive director of the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters, in his testimony to the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications last Wednesday. He said results from its Portable People Meter system suffered from "bias," adding: "PPM is a greater threat to the survival of minority-owned media than even the FCC's threatened media-ownership rule changes."

Winston's ire was the result of Arbitron's alleged unwillingness to rectify shortcomings in the PPM system, including its failure to meet target sample sizes in key demos. Of critical interest to NABOB members are African-Americans ages 18-34, a group they say is woefully underrepresented in Arbitron's samples. They blame ratings disparities--the sudden drop at urban format stations--after the switch to PPM.

Broadcasters that target minority audiences say that PPM data could effectively put them out of business, thereby reducing the diversity of music on the airwaves. Separately, Winston was quoted as saying, "when we met with Arbitron, they said 'what you need to do is program to the data,' which would mean going from a black format to a white format."

Winston also said PPM met repeated rebuffs from the Media Rating Council in recent weeks. According to radio industry insiders, its decision to delay the rollout of PPM ratings in various markets was prompted by MRC's refusal to grant accreditation in Philadelphia, where the service has already been commercialized as currency for radio ad sales. Worse yet, according to Winston, PPM actually failed to earn re-accreditation in Houston when it applied to MRC with a change in recruiting methodology.

The Media Rating Council is an industry body established at the behest of Congress in 1964 to maintain standards in media ratings through oversight of methodologies and implementation. The results of its closed deliberations are secret, so its rumored refusal to grant PPM accreditation in Philadelphia and Houston technically remains speculation.

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