Spanish-Language Broadcasters join forces to express concerns about Arbitron’s Portable People Meter

Spanish-language radio broadcasters Spanish Broadcasting System, Entravision Communications Corporation, Univision Communications and Border Media Partners have formed an industry-focused committee to voice concerns about Arbitron’s proposed rollout of the Portable People Meter (PPM) and the potentially harmful impact it could have on the Hispanic marketplace. The newly created group has been named the Spanish Radio Association (“SRA”).

The group held a meeting with Arbitron on June 6th during which they advocated the importance of properly evaluating the Hispanic audience measurement capabilities and effectiveness of Arbitron’s PPM before its full-scale implementation.

Representing the major Spanish-language broadcasters were Raúl Alarcón, Jr., CEO and President of Spanish Broadcasting System; Gary Stone, President and Chief Operating Officer of Univision Radio; Jeffery Liberman, President of Entravision’s radio division; and Jeff Hinson, Chief Executive Officer of Border Media Partners. Senator Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) was also present at the meeting in support of the SRA’s concerns. Senator Menendez also took the opportunity to remind those assembled that PPM will not only affect Spanish-language broadcasters, but every Hispanic in the country.

“Ensuring that the next generation of audience measurement is accurately developed, tested, accredited, and ultimately accepted by the entire radio industry, is of critical importance,” said Mr. Alarcón, Jr. “The Hispanic population in the U.S. is growing rapidly and becoming more influential, while Spanish-language radio is becoming one of the most popular formats in the country. With that in mind, Arbitron must take the necessary steps towards understanding the impact this audience measurement tool will have on one of the industry’s most important constituencies and it must insure a proper and valid measurement of the Hispanic radio audience,” added Mr. Alarcón.

“Hispanic buying power is growing substantially and was estimated to be in excess of $840 billion dollars in the United States in 2007. Based on this growth, it is extremely important that Arbitron ensures sound methodology and representation of Hispanics,” added Mr. Liberman. “We urge Arbitron not to move forward with the rollout of PPM until all ethnic broadcasters are satisfied that the principles of fair market representation are being fulfilled.”

“We are 100% committed to ensuring accountability to advertisers, viewers and partners,” said Stone. “However, this means we need to have accurate and actionable data. It is imperative that Arbitron ensures PPM effectively measures all audience segments before implementation. Any inaccuracy will impact the entire industry as it will not be reliable or credible.”

As part of the meeting, the SRA highlighted several of the key issues with PPM that need to be addressed before moving forward with the rollout, including panel sample size, the increase of response rates, accurately identifying and tracking a panelist country of origin, language weighting, cell phone-only usage, fair measurement when it comes to high-density Hispanic areas, sharing of sample information, meter placement according to zip codes and the question of documented versus undocumented listeners, among other topics.

The group intends to meet regularly with Arbitron in an effort to ensure proper Hispanic representation in all markets that will be launching PPM as currency.