Spanish Broadcasting Appeals to FCC in Arbitron Case

The fight between Spanish Broadcasting System and Arbitron turned ugly Friday (Feb. 12). After being ordered by a court to resume encoding its signals for Arbitron's portable people meter service, SBS, backed by the other members of the PPM Coalition, appealed to the Federal Communications Commission.

It's not the first time the PPM Coalition has attempted to involve the FCC in its fight with Arbitron over how it counts minorities in the PPM ratings service. But so far, the FCC has not taken any action against Arbitron. The latest battle between Arbitron and a minority broadcaster was set into motion Feb. 4 when SBS pulled the PPM encoders from nine stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. On Feb. 11, the Supreme Court of the State of New York for the County of New York issued a temporary retraining order requiring SBS to resume encoding. The Court will convene Tuesday to determine whether to continue to compel SBS to encode.