STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER JONATHAN S. ADELSTEIN
Re: Impact of Arbitron Audience Ratings Measurement on Radio Broadcasters, 
MB Docket No. 08-187.
Late last year, I called on the Commission to initiate an inquiry into whether 
Arbitron’s deployment of its new audience measurement system, the portable people 
meter (PPM), was undermining the Commission’s efforts to promote media diversity and 
expand ownership opportunities for businesses owned by people of color.  Over the 
months, there has been a growing chorus of concerns regarding the methodology, 
deployment and results of PPM from broadcasters, both big and small, including state 
and minority broadcasters’ associations, independent media ratings companies, state 
attorneys general, Members of Congress, and the Commission’s Advisory Committee on 
Diversity.  Concerns have ranged from Arbitron’s practices to recruit cell-phone only 
households to the underrepresentation of racial and ethnic groups on PPM panels and the 
lack of accreditation from the Media Ratings Council.  After initially disregarding these 
concerns, Arbitron now acknowledges the need for improvements to its new 
measurement system.
I am pleased that the Commission is prepared to conduct our own fact-finding and 
examination to determine whether PPM is “sufficiently accurate and reliable to merit the 
Commission’s own reliance on it in its rules, policies and procedures.”  If the 
Commission does not conclude that PPM is in fact reliable and accurate, or if there are 
still many unanswered questions, the Commission may have to reconsider whether its 
reliance on Arbitron’s market definitions and audience ratings calls into question the 
reliability and integrity of the Commission’s own analysis that uses Arbitron information.  
The Commission may have to also consider whether prohibiting broadcasters’ 
participation in PPM altogether is in the public interest.  
This open and neutral inquiry is the first step of Commission action.  I look 
forward to public comment to these important questions to determine if additional 
measures are necessary.