PPM issues need answers ………

The Spanish Radio Association (SRA) created a list of issue they expect to receive answer on from Arbitron. Answers have not come forth, but are expected by the SRA from Arbitron.

1. Response Rates – Currently in the “teens” is NOT acceptable.

2. Faulting – Current faulting levels are also NOT acceptable.

3. Sample Sizes – To implement the two improvements discussed above and to gain stability in the ratings, we must have increased sample sizes. Moving forward, we suggest forming a sub-committee of Arbitron and the members of this group to bring back recommendations and discuss what is necessary for implementation of larger sample.

4. Country of Origin – While you are reviewing data and developing an analysis to study the impact of Country of Origin weighting, at the very least, we would like you to ask panelists for this information.. The cost to Arbitron will be minimal as it is just an additional question or two.. Once this has been determined and we look at how this information impacts listening, we would like to discuss the viability of controlling for this characteristic.

a) The requested criteria that any specific nationality that exceeds 7.5% of the Hispanic population must be shown individual.

5. Language Weighting – Using P6+ for all demos is not acceptable. . We are asking that Arbitron secure Language Universe Estimates so the sample can be weighted separately for men and women for the following demographics: 18-24, 25-34. 35-49, and Persons 50+. We believe it is harmful to have the sample information available without a weighting applied at the discrete demographic breakouts we are requesting.

6. CPO – Cell Phone Only. This characteristic is incredibly important to the Hispanic community. Concerned over Arbitron’s decision to set a universal and under-representative metric (7.9%) for all markets. Arbitron acknowledges the 7.9% is under-representative and thus CPO is weighted up in all samples.

7. Proportionality – To improve proportionality we are requesting increased representation in HDHA’s . We would like to agree to a benchmark that within a year will become a guarantee. We do not want just a benchmark – we want that benchmark to flow into a guarantee.

8. Recruiting Procedures-Training- Representatives – We are asking Arbitron for documentation of how the recruiting representatives for the Hispanic sample are trained, how many bilingual representatives per market, and how non-compliant households are coached, how long they below the non-compliant threshold before they a released from the sample.

9. In-Parallel for markets that have gone live. Arbitron has created a diary book for the first book of PPM currency. This is just a “safety net”. It is not meant to see the light of day. We want Arbitron to compare the results of diaries and PPM in the parallel to better understand what is contributing to ratings losses for Spanish language stations in PPM. Especially the loss of heavy tuners. We are asking that the same sub-committee formed for sample size challenges also address the design of this study.

10. Meter Placement by Zip – We are asking Arbitron supply Hispanic meter counts by zip code each month. We would like to see this in an expected versus actual format. Nielsen releases this to clients regularly.

11. Documented versus Undocumented Populations – Has there been any further information or progress on investigating possible data sources and analyses plans?

12. Arbitron Dedicated Hispanic Analysts – We are requesting a separate Arbitron analyst dedicated to Spanish Language Radio requests. We would also expect this to grow as more markets roll out.

a) Request monthly, detailed information on each panel – live and being built when they reach 75% of total persons 6+ similar to what TV broadcasters receive from Nielsen.

Have these concerns been answered or even addressed by Arbitron?

We are waiting …………….