Arbitron said it has received accreditation from the Media Rating Council for its Portable People Meter ratings data in Houston.
The company called this step a major accomplishment “two years in the making.”
“Users of the new PPM radio ratings currency in Houston – monthly data based on average quarter hour radio ratings – can have confidence that the radio methodology, sampling systems and survey processes that are the foundation of the PPM service have been independently and thoroughly audited and have met the standards of the MRC,” Arbitron said in its announcement.
Arbitron said it will meet with users in the market to discuss a schedule for commercializing the PPM service there.
In the announcement, George Ivie, executive director of the MRC, was quoted saying, “We broke a lot of new ground over the last two years, and Arbitron worked with us constructively during the audit and thereafter to ensure necessary audit committee learning took place.”
Last March, Arbitron agreed to wait until it received the accreditation in Houston before it would discontinue its diaries and make the PPM the “currency” radio ratings service there. Arbitron is conducting a Winter survey in that city using its standard diary methodology.
The MRC was founded at the urging of Congress in 1964. Fifteen Arbitron services now are accredited by the MRC.
