Nielsen has added more information to its court filed complaint against Bubba the Love Sponge.
In its original complaint, filed in mid-October in federal court in Florida, the audience research firm alleged Bubba, whose real name is now Bubba Clem, paid a portable People Meter panelist to tamper with Clem’s ratings. Now, Nielsen has provided the court with evidence it says shows more people were involved.
Nielsen has amended its $1M complaint to add details it says show Clem paid at least five people, both PPM wearers and diary respondents, to boost his ratings.
Nielsen alleges Clem paid the original cooperating PPM panelist “a portion” of the money he promised, $300 a month originally plus a $400 a month bonus “if the target results were achieved.”
Nielsen alleges Clem left envelope with cash for the panelist at the front desk of WBRN, where his program originates.
Clem “described that by using certain tricks” the panelist and his wife could “circumvent” the PPM’s motion sensor, according to the 30+-page filing, like: “If the gimmicks are still running/not locked up. I think we dodged [detection].”
The filing alleges Clem sent texts with instructions “about what other stations he should tune to from time to time so as to avoid creating suspicion but, at the same time, not increase the ratings of competing programs.”
The attempted ratings tampering involved more than Florida, according to Nielsen, also involving a diary respondent in Charleston, S.C. Nilsen provided texts allegedly from Clem stating: “You cannot call the show to discuss this” and “[Direct message] me ur cell I’ll call u later.”
Nielsen reiterates it has been harmed by the attempted ratings tampering and so has the radio industry. Subscribers continue to question the integrity of the survey and ask Nielsen about the possibility of additional “ratings distortion activity by Bubba Clem” coming to light, it tells the court.
One “significant” broadcast group that subscribes to Nielsen ratings data has asked for financial and other compensation, according to the ratings firm.
Nielsen tells the court the company has incurred “significant” costs to replace 7 PPM panelists and 5 diary panelists. Also, each month a station is de-listed, that station doesn’t pay Nielsen Audio license fees. Each time the company became aware of another incident, it had to locate the “tainted” data, remove it and re-calculate the estimates “all at a significant expenditure of time, effort and resources.”
Nielsen says it’s still incurring investigative costs.
Asked for comment by RBR+TVBR, a Nielsen spokesperson said: “Nielsen does not comment on pending litigation.”
The amended filing comes nearly three weeks after Clem attorney The Todd Foster Law Group sought a dismissal, saying the case does not belong in federal court. The defendants Clem and the Bubba Radio Network stated Nielsen’s complaint “bites off more than it can chew, attempting and failing to rewrite an isolated instance of poor judgment which admittedly did not impact its ratings measurements into a noisy tale of pervasive fraud that has damaged an entire industry. Not so.”
RBR+TVBR has also reached out to Clem’s attorney for comment about the new allegations. Beasley had no comment on the amended Nielsen complaint.
