There was a MRC Radio Committee meeting Wednesday regarding PPM. Previously, Arbitron did a presentation on the ongoing PPM issues. There were extenuating circumstances. We heard there was a vote on how the industry will move forward with PPM in pending markets (probably New York and Philadelphia…maybe others) and that Houston will remain accredited. MRC Chairman George Ivie confirms with RBR that Houston will remain accredited and that Arbitron will be informed of the results of the meeting within a few days.
Said Ivie: “I can’t tell you the results of the votes—they are very confidential. They haven’t even been discussed with Arbitron. I have not even personally discussed this vote with Arbitron. I can tell you with certainty they do not know anything about this meeting or this vote…This was a meeting of the Radio Committee to review new materials and some responses that Arbitron provided. Every time the committee meets they discuss the information that we have on Arbitron and our accreditation status. And the committee met. This accreditation process is ongoing.”
RBR/TVBR observation: It is our hunch on this that the answers Arbitron provided are not going to get NYC and Philly accredited in the short term. We think Arbitron may have to show more evidence of improvement in sample sizes, etc. before the thumbs up are given. As we said, we heard there were "extenuating circumstances." As Ivie said, this is all part of a process.
