Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies signs petition for FCC inquiry into PPM

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) filed jointly with the PPM Coalition in an emergency petition for Section 403 inquiry by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) into the current Portable People Meter (PPM) methodology used by Arbitron, Inc. AHAA’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the petition that formally questions the accuracy of PPM sampling and methodology. The PPM Coalition’s petition reiterates many of the same concerns expressed by the AHAA PPM Council in a meeting with Arbitron on Monday, August 18th and previous to that in a written document.

Given Arbitron’s apparent lack of concern for the gravity of the issues that Hispanic marketers and broadcasters have collectively voiced, AHAA leaders and council members felt time was of the essence. With Arbitron’s announcement to move forward on October 8th with the mass commercialization of PPM regardless of existing shortcomings, AHAA leaders believed signing the petition was in the best interest of its members, the industry, advertisers and Latino consumers.

While the industry supports electronic measurement, as the petition states, “the methodology must be reliable and fair.” AHAA is in sharp disagreement with Arbitron about the accurate representation of the Hispanic audience sample which could have a devastating impact on the industry wiping out nearly half of the minority broadcasters. “The association is committed to preserving the integrity of the Hispanic advertising industry and our marketplace,” says AHAA Chairman José López-Varela. “We intend to be vigilant in pursuing accurate measurement of Hispanics and that the sampling methods and tools are adequate to provide the resources we require.”