Melbourne’s Sport 927 has greatly expanded its claim against Nielsen Media Research from just the anomolies relating to survey #1 of 2004 (see earlier stories), to now encompass the entire period dating back to 1998 when the station formally withdrew from surveys.

The situation will get interesting when the station is required to open its books to the courts and opposing council to prove its claims of lost revenue.

In an internal station memo General Manager, Noel Crowe, told staff, “We are proceeding with a damages claim, 1998 – 2004, citing our frequent formal complaints to AC Nielsen, as to our belief, and that of noted experts, that the diary ratings methodology disadvantages our reported survey results”.

Crowe and his lawyers are closely monitoring a 66 million pound action in the UK brought by racing station, TalkSPORT London, against the local audience measurement firm RAJAR. The diary system shows TalkSport with around 1.9 million weekly listeners while concurrent electronic ratings measure the audience at a whopping 6.6 million.

Noel Crowe believes that his station has been subject to similar discrepencies for years, losing significant amounts in revenue as a result. He told radioinfo, “From the start, when we pulled out of the surveys five years ago, we had repeatedly asked Nielsen’s to delete all reference to Sport 927 from the results, to no avail”.

As a result of a Federal Court “directions hearing” this morning (21/04/04) the matter has been formally listed to commence October 18th 2004. The case is expected to take five sitting days.