Nine of 15 comments in the FCC’s inquiry on Arbitron devices (CD ...

found. Four filings said no investigation was called for and/or that PPMs were OK. Two filings, one from the Media Ratings Council and another supporting that organization’s work, took no stance on those core issues. “Arbitron, the monopoly provider of radio audience measurement, has stopped measuring representative samples of minority audiences,” said the PPM Coalition, a group of minority radio organizations and broadcasters that sought the commission inquiry. “In its headlong rush to deploy its lucrative new product,” the company found “that accurately measuring minority audiences is too expensive,” it said. Even if the FCC had authority over PPMs, which Arbitron said it doesn’t, the devices “more reliably” measure listeners’ exposure to stations than paper-and-pencil diaries, the company said. “Congress has considered on multiple occasions whether to put media audience measurement services under federal government regulation, and just as often has rejected doing so,” Arbitron added. “The Commission itself has concluded that it lacks jurisdiction over services such as Arbitron’s.” Though the PPM system “can and should be improved,” Emmis said it believes rollout without delay is “vital” for the radio industry to compete with digital media. In any case, the commission lacks authority, the radio broadcaster added. Entercom, another owner of radio stations, said PPMs are the “best electronic radio audience measurement system” available and necessary to use because “many of our important customers” are “demanding” it. Section 403 of the Communications Act gives the regulator authority over PPMs, said the Media Access Project: “Were it necessary, the Commission has the power to compel Arbitron to submit information essential to the inquiry.”