Memphis Radio: Flinn Broadcasting Amends Countersuit Vs. Nielsen

Flinn Broadcasting has asked a U.S. District Court to dismiss Nielsen’s breach of contract lawsuit against the broadcaster and to rule in Flinn’s favor and award it legal fees and “further relief.” The petition is part of an Amended Counterclaim Flinn filed against Nielsen on April 14.

InsideRadio reports the move comes about three weeks after Nielsen asked the court to toss the counterclaims Flinn asserted in its initial answer to Nielsen’s complaint, which alleged that Flinn breached its contract by failing to pay $136,872.88 for PPM ratings and other services for its Memphis cluster during an eight-month period in 2015.

In its Amended Counterclaim, Flinn denies most of Nielsen’s allegations and repeats its contention that Nielsen “fraudulently induced” Flinn into entering into agreements for “unreliable, false and misleading” ratings. Flinn claims that Nielsen breached the agreements and that any damages it claims to have suffered were from its own misconduct and are offset by the damages incurred by Flinn.

Flinn turns up the heat on Nielsen, noting how the measurement giant’s PPM service has “repeatedly flunked” MRC accreditation and is accredited in only 26 of the PPM markets, of which Memphis isn’t one.

Now that Flinn has amended its counterclaim, the judge hearing the case has denied Nielsen’s motion to toss Flinn’s original countersuit as “moot” while giving Nielsen the right to refile its motion based on the Amended Counterclaim. Since the two parties are scheduled to have a settlement conference on May 11, the judge has agreed to give Nielsen until May 25 to respond to Flinn’s Amended Counterclaim.