Spanish-Language broadcasters join forces

Spanish-language radio broadcasters Spanish Broadcasting System, Entravision, Univision and Border Media Partners have formed an industry-focused committee to voice concerns about Arbitron’s proposed rollout of the PPM.  The newly created group has been named the Spanish Radio Association.  The group, “SRA,” held a meeting with Arbitron on 6/6 where they advocated the importance of properly evaluating the Hispanic audience measurement capabilities and effectiveness of PPM before its full-scale implementation.

Representing the broadcasters were Raul Alarcon, Jr., CEO and President of SBS; Gary Stone, President/COO of Univision Radio; Jeffery Liberman, President of Entravision’s radio division; and Jeff Hinson, CEO of Border Media Partners. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was also present at the meeting in support of SRA concerns.

“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 Alarcon, 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.”

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.