More from Bubba’s counterclaim. He alleges that over the course of several telephone calls between Cox and Nielsen in 2015, the two companies “concocted a plan to conduct a sting operation designed to entrap Clem into engaging in ratings distortion activity.”
Bubba says the sting operation planned by Cox and Nielsen was to involve a third party onto Nielsen’s Tampa PPM panel who would be directed by Cox and Nielsen to approach Clem and his staff on several occasions while wearing a PPM device with the goal of enticing them into engage in ratings distortion activities. Then, just when it appeared we would be able to read the details in the document of how Bubba claims the sting operation was conducted, pages of the court document are redacted. Eventually Nielsen did claim that Bubba violated the rules by making contact with PPM panel members.
Clem claims that Cox management used its position as a large Nielsen subscriber to influence Nielsen into agreeing to participate in the conspiracy. The counterclaim states that Nielsen internal documents show something, but that was followed by more pages of redacted details.
The document goes on to say 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.
Bubba also claims that Nielsen then leaked all of the bad news about him to the press. “Nielsen’s defamatory statements have been disseminated to diverse media outlets, including but not limited to, newspapers, radio, television, and the Internet; and have subjected Clem and BRN to hatred, distrust, ridicule, contempt, disgrace, and have injured their professional reputations and goodwill in the radio industry.”
A second court mediation was originally set for February 2. No word yet on how or if this new development will affect that meeting. Nielsen had no comment on the new court filing.
