By Kevin Canessa Jr. - Jan 8, 2009
Keywords: radio, music, media, lawsuit
Radio ratings giant Arbitron has settled a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey, which accused the ratings firm of perpetrating fraud and civil-rights violations with its new Portable People Meters (PPMs), The Associated Press (AP) reports. PPMs measure ratings on radio stations. Arbitron has also agreed to ensure that its polling panels are racially diverse and that people are trained to use the PPMs.
As part of the settlement, Arbitron will pay New Jersey $130,000 and New York $260,000.
The two attorneys general filed the suits because they believed the PPMs would not be distributed to people from traditionally underrepresented groups. As such, ratings results would be skewed for Black-owned radio stations and stations owned by members of other traditionally underrepresented groups.
In the past, ratings were calculated based on diaries--physical paper forms that were submitted to Arbitron--where those being sampled would write where and when they listened to particular radio stations. The PPMs, conversely, allow users to simply press a few buttons to indicate where and when they were listening to radio stations. But the PPMs weren't being distributed equally, the attorneys general said.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo brought the first suit against Arbitron in October, the AP reports. They say Cuomo was very concerned that New York's diverse radio-listening population would be unfairly polled.
The Spanish Radio Association lauded the settlement and issued a statement, according to the AP: "We strongly believe that the steps agreed upon by Arbitron and the attorneys general when fully implemented will be a major step forward in allowing for accurate rating data which can be used by all broadcasters and advertisers."
Click here to read the full story from The Associated Press via Forbes.
