As well, New Jersey AG Anne Milgram is suing Arbitron, charging its use of the "new, unaccredited system for measuring listenership harms minority consumers and violates New Jersey’s consumer fraud, advertising and anti- discrimination laws."
Arbitron quickly asked the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey for a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief against the state’s AG to prevent any attempt to restrain its publication of its PPM listening estimates. Arbitron also acknowledged New York’s litigation denying all allegations and says it will defend itself and its interests vigorously.
Regarding the NJ suit, Arbitron said any restraint on the publication of its PPM listening estimates would have an “adverse impact on the radio broadcast industry and advertising industries as a whole, would cause Arbitron’s business to suffer severe irreparable harm, would cause economic injury to Arbitron’s shareholders and violates the company’s First Amendment rights to publish its radio audience listening estimates."
RBR/TVBR observation: Good move by Arbitron to go for the throat and declaratory judgment. This is a broadcaster issue that each broadcaster is going to have to come to terms with. For 25 years the biggest problem RBR has heard and what hurts Arbitron is their attitude for being arrogant. Or, in today’s terminology – user friendly. For a closer look at PPM we recommend you take a listen to the Roundtable discussion on the Disagreement on PPM located on the Media Center at RBR.com.
