MRC Pulls Accreditation for PPM Service in Multiple Markets

Nielsen’s Personal Portable Meter (PPM) radio audience measurement service has lost Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation in four major markets—Baltimore, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh—and has been denied accreditation in 18 additional markets that were under review.

Those markets are:

• 
  Austin
• Boston
• Dallas
• Hartford
• Houston
• Las Vegas
• Memphis
• Nashville
• New York
• Norfolk
• 
  Orlando
• Providence
• Raleigh
• Sacramento
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Washington, D.C.
• West Palm Beach

The MRC did not provide reasons for the revocations or denials, which were disclosed Friday in its quarterly accreditation status updates. Accreditation remains in place for 24 other Nielsen PPM markets.

The setbacks come at a contentious time for Nielsen and the radio industry. Stations and markets have challenged Nielsen’s “subscriber-first” business model, which requires them to pay for the service before their audience estimates are included in market-share data.

The affected radio markets all rely on the same PPM wearable technology that Nielsen is now incorporating into its “enhancements” for television audience measurement in its Big Data + panel currency. Following a pilot study earlier this year, Nielsen is moving forward with using the wearable meters as a factor in estimating co-viewing in both Big Data and people-meter panel households.