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As PPM Rolls Out, Agencies Consider Philly Boycott

When Arbitron goes live with its PPM service in Philadelphia on Jan. 11, it is likely that nine stations in the market will not be included in the ratings service.

Clear Channel, with six local stations, and Radio One, with three, have still not agreed to have their stations encoded by Arbitron. That could mean that they risk losing millions of dollars in national spot revenue, writes MediaPost.

That’s because some buyers, such as Carat, may choose to leave those stations out of its buys. Worse, Carat is considering not buying the market at all. “If we cannot buy an effective schedule due to lack of proper ratings data, we will recommend against buying the market,” Mary Barnas, executive vp and director of local broadcast for Carat, is quoted as saying. Barnas is a strong supporter of the PPM.

Barnas plans to meet with Clear Channel’s senior management next week about the situation. Clear Channel has resisted the transition to PPM for the past year, forming a committee to explore alternatives and ultimately calling off negotiations with Arbitron when the Media Rating Council failed to accredit the service in Houston.

Arbitron currently has 65 percent of the Philadelphia radio market agreeing to be encoded. The measurement company has also said that it has developed technology that will allow it to encode even non-participating radio stations.

The audio matching capability is currently being tested among 50 PPM panelists and could be fully deployed as early as next fall.