Arbitron says it will release the April 2009 monthly PPM report for New York today, a week late, as announced last week. However, the ratings company has found more problems with its PPM data for NYC, which means that several months of reports have to be reworked.
Here’s the explanation from the company of what happened:
“While conducting a quality review in advance of the release of April PPM data, Arbitron discovered that manually entered population numbers in one instance had been transposed in the internal files used for processing New York PPM data. We subsequently reviewed all PPM markets and found no other instances of transpositions.
Our review also found that the transposition, which occurred during preparation for October 2008 report processing, appears to have affected New York audience estimates for the Holiday 2008-March 2009 report periods sufficiently to warrant the issuance of revised audience estimates for those report periods. (Audience estimates for October-December 2008 appear not to have been materially affected, based on Arbitron’s guidelines regarding the issuance of revised estimates.)
Revised New York audience estimates and data for the Holiday 2008-March 2009 report periods will release on Monday, June 8 at 12:00 Noon Eastern Time,” Arbitron said.
“Please note as well that we are taking additional quality control measures for future reports. These measures include the replacement of manual processes that rely on clerical data entry with automated processes where possible,” the company told clients, adding, “We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.”
