Arbitron's portable people validity challenged

Well, things are really heating up between the Hispanic marketing industry and Arbitron over its highly-criticized Portable People Meter methodology.

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies and the PPM Coalition, a group of minority radio broadcasters, filed a petition with the FCC requesting an investigation into the accuracy of the PPM.

According to an article in AdWeek, Arbitron has two portable people meter markets in Houston and Philadelphia and plans to expand to eight markets by the end of the year.

This follows several months of meetings between the parties. Basically, minority broadcasters, fear lower ratings and dwindling ad dollars because of how Arbitron represents the Hispanic audience sample.

"It could have a devastating impact on the industry, wiping out nearly half of the minority broadcasters," the group said in a statement. Arbitron countered that the PPM is more accurate than the diary and that the petitioning groups have failed to acknowledge improvements in the quality of Arbitron's minority samples. Arbitron said: "Our PPM samples are designed to effectively represent the diversity of the African-American and Spanish-language radio marketplace and of all the markets we measure in terms of age, sex, race, ethnicity and Spanish-language preference."

Arbitron does not believe that the FCC has jurisdiction over the company or its operations and assets and consequently lacks the authority to commence an investigation.

Get the popcorn ready, this could get more heated than the presidential elections!