Bubba

The suit by NIELSEN AUDIO against BUBBA THE LOVE SPONGE over alleged ratings tampering has taken another turn with BUBBA CLEM filing a motion for leave to file a counterclaim and to bring COX MEDIA GROUP and his local TAMPA rival MIKE CALTA into the case with a third-party complaint.

The move brings to light several allegations by BUBBA that COX and NIELSEN worked together to eliminate BUBBA as a competitor in the TAMPA market, including a "sting operation" and imposing penalties -- including two months of delisting -- that had not been imposed for violations by others in the past.

The motion, following a document dump on BUBBA by NIELSEN of over 71,000 documents between OCTOBER 21st and NOVEMBER 4th, claims that evidence in the documents shows a conspiracy between NIELSEN and COX to "utilize NIELSEN’s monopoly power over the audience measurement and ratings for the TAMPA Market to prevent (BUBBA and his company) from broadcasting their morning radio show on (BEASLEY MEDIA GROUP Rock) WBRN in competition with (COX MEDIA GROUP Talk) WHPT ((102.5 THE BONE)/TAMPA), along with tortious interference with BUBBA's contract with BEASLEY and his relationship with advertisers and syndicators.

The motion also claims that COX and NIELSEN conspired to "improperly manipulate NIELSEN’s ratings for the TAMPA market to simultaneously increase WHPT’s market share to the benefit of COX, while decreasing the share of WBRN."

The proposed counterclaim and third-party suit alleges that after BUBBA left COX in 2014 and joined BEASLEY in JANUARY 2015, WBRN beat WHPT in Persons 25-54 and Men 25-54 by MARCH 2015 and did so through JUNE, when the parties allegedly conspired to try and eliminate BUBBA's show in the market, first with CALTA's airing of an allegedly defamatory phone call on the air that claimed BUBBA was tampering with the ratings including controlling PPMs, having PPMs on "watch winders in a shed and/or a shipping container," buying a PPM from his dentist's nurse, and stopping using the PPMs for WHPT's benefit after he left.

The copy of the suit filed with the court has significant sections about NIELSEN's direct conduct redacted from public view, including details of an alleged "sting operation" that BUBBA alleges was designed to entrap him into "engaging in ratings distortion activity." One of the paragraphs not redacted alleges that a third party was to be added to the PPM panel to approach BUBBA and his staff to try to entrap them into tampering.

The proposed countersuit notes that NIELSEN's action against him "represents the first and only time NIELSEN has ever filed a suit against a radio personality for allegedly engaging in ratings distortion activity" and claims that the delisting of WBRN was unnecessary since the meter results in question were never included in the overall ratings.

It also alleges that NIELSEN mischaracterized BUBBA's on-air comments about "the ratings company" as worthy of a Special Notice warning in the ratings as opposed to the kind of comments about ratings made by radio personalities throughout the country, and alleges that NIELSEN "began suppressing the ratings for WBRN, and all of BEASLEY’s other radio stations in the TAMPA market, by manipulating their data in such a way that the radio stations rapidly declined in the ratings and were unable to achieve the same level of success as they had consistently achieved previously," leading to BEASLEY dropping the show.

ALL ACCESS has reached out to NIELSEN and COX MEDIA GROUP for comment; NIELSEN has declined comment on the filing.

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