Harker: Direct Indignation At Nielsen, Not Voltair

Richard Harker

According Richard Harker at Harker Research, "Every broadcaster who writes a fat check to Nielsen every month deserves to get accurate rating estimates of station listensership. Everyone."

In his latest blog, Harker continued his probe of Nielsen's PPM's Ethical debate.  There are some who believe Voltair, manaufactured by Telos Alliance, is in effect putting radio "on steroids".

Harker disagrees.  He writes, "we have concrete evidence that Nielsen is not giving you accurate estimates. Maybe you’re getting 70%, maybe you’re getting 90%, but in all likelihood, you’re not getting 100%."

"Voltair gets you closer to the goal of 100%. That’s all it does."

And Harker further suggests, "If you are going to get morally indignant, direct your indignation at Nielsen, not Voltair."

"Everyone who has tested Voltair has kept it. That’s more than 300 stations.
Are the 300 stations using Voltair not playing fair because they want the ratings to reflect 100% of their listening? 

It seems to us that it is fiduciarily irresponsible to accept estimates that fall well short of 100% accuracy once you have reason to believe that Nielsen is under-reporting your numbers. 

That’s particularly true if other stations in your market are using something that gets them closer to 100%. 

Invoking fairness, playing by the rules, and steroids is a straw-man argument made by people who don’t understand PPM, don’t understand its shortcomings, and don’t understand Voltair.