New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched an investigation into Arbitron’s Portable People Meter, according to Inside Radio, Radio Ink and Radio & Record trade journals.
The investigation is based on the possibility that current ratings research practices hinder minority broadcasters.
As part of Tribune Company’s continued innovation in developing media products that connect with the Hispanic market, Marc Chase, President of Tribune Interactive, has appointed Terri Simpson to Vice President of Sales Operations, Multicultural for Tribune Interactive. Simpson will spearhead the re-launch of HoyInternet.com to ViveloHoy.com as her first major initiative at Tribune.
In motorsports , choosing the optimum pit strategy of how many stops to make and when to make them is crucial to having a successful race. In today’s troubled economy, with gas prices topping off at nearly $4 a gallon, a new study from consumer intelligence firm BIGresearch suggests cash-strapped consumers are calculating their own pit strategy— to save both time and money.
Sterling Commerce released the results of a recent survey that shows that the gaps are closing between consumer expectations for a seamless cross-channel experience and retailers’ abilities to deliver that experience.
When the merger of two radio companies results in the combined company controlling a significant share of a radio market, the merger may undergo review by both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to determine if the merger is in the public interest. In undertaking that inquiry, the government considers whether the combined company will exceed the FCC’s multiple ownership caps and/or wield an anticompetitive (and hence impermissible) level of market control. If the merged company would exceed those caps or otherwise be anticompetitive in one or more markets, it may be forced to sell off stations.
While key metrics of the Marketing Research Association’s Research Industry Index (RII) remain relatively flat for the second quarter of 2008, business executives forecast a gloomy outlook.
On September 2, 2008, PPM Coalition (“PPMC”) filed an “Emergency Petition for Section 403 Inquiry.” PPMC consists of National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, Spanish Radio Association, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, Border Media Partners, Entravision, ICBC Broadcast Holdings, Spanish Broadcasting System, and Univision. PPMC asks the Commission to immediately open an inquiry, under Section 403 of the Communications Act, into Arbitron’s use of Portable People Meters (“PPM”). PPMC notes that on July 28, 2008, the Commission’s Advisory Committee on Diversity recommended the same action that PPMC formally requests here. PPMC argues that PPM methodology undercounts minority radio listeners, that the rollout of PPM methodology starting October 8, 2008 in eight markets (including the four largest radio markets) will seriously harm minority broadcasting and defeat the Commission’s diversity goals, and that the Commission
White Memorial Medical Center in Southern California has hired Los Angeles-based Sensis as its interactive agency to expand WMMC’s brand and outreach efforts.
