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MRC Puts Brakes on PPM, Clear Channel Pounces

Pierre Bouvard & Owen Charlebois have written a letter to Arbitron subscribers saying that PPM won’t be going live in Houston in July as planned and instead the company will continue using diaries to determine Houston radio ratings this summer, Radio Ink reports.

In short,  Arbitron has not secured Media Rating Council accreditation of its PPM system and stands by its commitment to not replace diary-based radio ratings in Houston with Portable People Meter radio ratings until the Houston PPM service receives Media Rating Council accreditation.

Clear Channel Radio, which has been fielding its own evaluation of electronic measurement options for radio, said that PPM’s inability to secure Media Rating Council accreditation proved that “PPM is not ready for prime time,” Mediaweek reports.

“Progress toward accreditation of the Houston PPM Service is being made,” said George Ivie, Executive Director, Media Rating Council. ” Our Audit Committee has requested additional information, analyses and follow-up actions from Arbitron in some focused areas, which has narrowed during the audit process. This type of interchange is not unusual for a first-time accreditation proceeding.

“Arbitron is trying to put the best spin on this, but this is devastating to them and ensures there will be no Houston launch in July,” wrote a CC PR spokesperson in an e-mail to trade publications.

Even though Arbitron has signed up a number of the nation’s largest radio groups for its PPM service when it rolls out to the top 50 markets, except for CBS Radio, none of the broadcasters in Houston have signed, Mediaweek reports.