New Jersey AG announces lawsuit against Arbitron over ratings method.

Attorney General Anne Milgram announced today that the state is suing Arbitron, monopoly provider of audience ratings data to U.S. radio stations, charging that its use of a new, unaccredited system for measuring listenership harms minority consumers and violates New Jersey’s consumer fraud, advertising and anti-discrimination laws.

Based in New York City, Arbitron is a longtime seller of survey-based ratings data to radio stations serving New Jersey, as well as those in broadcast markets across the country.

Filed today in the Law Division of Superior Court in Middlesex County, the state’s four-count complaint focuses on Arbitron’s new, electronic Portable People Meter (PPM) method for determining audience share, which the company has launched for use in a number of major radio markets, including the New–York-New-Jersey market.

When previously test-sampled in the Philadelphia-New-Jersey and New-York-New-Jersey markets, the PPM methodology was denied accreditation by the Media Ratings Council, a non-government entity that tests audience ratings for media.

In addition, in markets where the PPM system has been sampled, ratings for minority stations have declined. The state’s lawsuit describes the PPM system as unreliable and fraught with “flaws that undercount radio listeners in certain racial and ethnic groups.”

“The existence and survival of radio stations is premised on advertising revenue, and advertisers rely heavily on Arbitron’s ratings in deciding where to place advertisements,” said Attorney General Milgram. ”The state’s position is that these new, unreliable ratings being generated by Arbitron severely harm those radio stations serving minorities, as well as minority listeners themselves.”

The state’s lawsuit charges Arbitron with engaging in unconscionable business practices by using its radio rating monopoly to discontinue its former, accredited measurement product and forcing broadcasters and advertisers to use ratings data derived from a PPM system “that is not accredited and possesses significant methodological flaws.”

The suit also charges Arbitron with engaging in deceptive business practices by failing to disclose important flaws identified in the PPM method, including shortcomings in its accuracy, and its documented under-representation of young listeners, as well as African-American and Latino listeners.

Arbitron also misleads broadcasters, advertisers and others, the state charges, by suggesting its PPM method for the New-York-New-Jersey market was generally accredited when, in fact, a different PPM approach used in the Houston radio market was the only PPM method to receive an accreditation.

In addition, the lawsuit charges that Arbitron has violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination by offering broadcasters and advertisers a ratings system “that disparately harms radio stations serving racial and ethnic minorities.”

Specifically, the complaint charges that Arbitron’s use of its flawed PPM system and its “systematic undercounting of younger-age demographics and ethnic minorities” causes those populations to receive an inferior service compared with non-minority populations.

In addition to maximum statutory penalties, the state’s lawsuit seeks to stop Arbitron from selling audience ratings data generated through the PPM methodology.

The state’s litigation against Arbitron is being handled by the Affirmative Litigation Unit within the Division of Law.

To view NJ AG complaint CLICK on link below (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):
https://hispanicad.combanners2/downloads/NJAGComplaint.pdf>