• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
MENUMENU
  • About
  • Send News Tips

Media Moves

Covering Latinos in the Media Industry

MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
  • Send News Tips
  • People
  • TV & Radio
  • Programming
  • Print
  • Digital
  • Job Board
  • Archives

Univision Radio fires employee amidst ratings cheating scandal

June 16, 2014 by Veronica Villafañe

URadio-Nielsen-PPMAn unidentified programming executive from Univision Radio’s KSCA 101.9 FM has been fired after measurement company Nielsen discovered portable people meter (PPM) manipulation dating as far back as a year, compromising the accuracy of the ratings in the Los Angeles market.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Nielsen found that a Univision Radio executive had been cheating the system by having access to the PPMs. The executive had misrepresented himself to become part of Nielsen’s sample audience and reported heavily listening to KSCA.

At least two homes participating in the Los Angeles audience sample were compromised. Employees of media organizations are strictly prohibited from participating in the Nielsen measurement system. Nielsen considers it “a serious violation of data integrity standards.”

Last week, Nielsen began investigating discrepancies in its L.A. radio ratings, acknowledging that two months of ratings data might be wrong due to “undisclosed problems with members of the firm’s sample audience.”

At the time, Univision denied that any of its employees might be involved in the ratings manipulation scandal. But today, Univision announced it fired the KSCA-FM programming executive, who apparently had access to several Nielsen PPM devices.

Univision Radio president José Valle released the following statement:

“Univision is fully committed to quality data. Nielsen recently reached out to inform us that a media affiliated household had been identified in Los Angeles, and that it was connected to a Univision Radio employee from the KSCA station. This household was separate from and unrelated to the prior problem that Nielsen had identified in connection with the Los Angeles ratings. We commenced an investigation and took immediate action by terminating the employee based on our findings. We are cooperating fully with Nielsen and the MRC to ensure the industry has quality data. A radio station employee being related to a Nielsen participant seriously undermines the industry and is unacceptable. We will continue to cooperate fully and ensure the efficacy of our internal training and compliance programs, which will be ongoing across all Univision stations.”

Nielsen today said it is recalculating its Los Angeles radio rating data to exclude the KSCA radio employee’s preferences. It will also evaluate how many months of ratings data will need to be scrutinized and possibly revised.

The LAT reports radio executives had expressed surprise with the April ratings because the KSCA leapfrogged over four other stations to become the top-rated station in the key morning drive-time hours.

Nielsen says it plans to do an “impact analysis” to determine the extent of the ratings data breaches.

Related

Filed Under: TV & Radio Tagged With: KSCA, Nielsen, Univision Radio

Primary Sidebar

Veronica Villafañe, Editor & Publisher

Emmy award-winning journalist and former president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). Currently a reporter for Voice of America, she has worked as an on-air reporter, anchor, writer and producer for Spanish and English-language TV, print and online media, including Univision, Telemundo, Fox 11 News in L.A. and the San Jose Mercury News.

Hispanic media and entertainment contributor to Forbes.

Full bio here

Related

Sylvia Rosabal

Sylvia Rosabal named Director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting

April 16, 2021

Diana Fuentes

Diana Fuentes leaves Express-News to lead IRE as executive director

April 15, 2021

Univision - Televisa

Univision to pay Televisa $4.8 billion in merger deal

April 13, 2021

Angelica Vale

Angélica Vale hired to host new game show on Estrella TV

April 12, 2021

Leonardo Feldman

Leonardo Feldman does cross-over to English as Newsmax correspondent

April 9, 2021

Secondary Sidebar

Media Moves is a mission-driven digital publication aimed at raising the visibility of Latinos in the media. Since its inception in 2007, the site has covered thousands of stories. To keep moving forward, we need your help. That’s why we launched a crowdfunding campaign.

Learn more about why Media Moves needs your support here.

You can contribute to the campaign clicking the button below.

SUPPORT MEDIA MOVES

Related

Get the week’s stories in your inbox. The Media Moves Wrap newsletter is sent Friday mornings.
SUBSCRIBE

Related

FOLLOW US

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
Copyright © 2021 Media Moves · All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy