A divided FTC OK'd Nielsen’s divesting a cross-platform...
A divided FTC OK'd Nielsen’s divesting a cross-platform audience measurement service to comScore, which the first company agreed to in getting agency approval in September to buy Arbitron, said a commission news release Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1mL5Geg). The vote approving the divestiture…
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of LinkMeter and extending the time to complete it was opposed by Commissioner Joshua Wright, who dissented when the agency imposed such conditions on the approximately $1.3 billion Nielsen/Arbitron deal (CD Sept 24 p13). Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen was recused in the latest action, as she was also recused in the earlier settlement paving the way for the divestiture. The one response on the LinkMeter sale to comScore during the commission’s comment period (CD Jan 27 p12), was from Jonathon Yinger of CBSL. He was concerned about Nielsen/Arbitron making it harder for small broadcasters to get Arbitron’s basic ratings data. That concern was moot, said an FTC response to him (http://1.usa.gov/1fN7xrj). “At the time of the transaction Nielsen did not offer a competing radio ratings service and was not an alternative source for this data."