Arbitron Commercializes the Portable People Meter Radio Ratings Service in Five New Local Markets
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, St. Louis, Denver-Boulder, Baltimore and Pittsburgh bring total of electronically measured radio markets to twenty-five
COLUMBIA, October 12, 2009 – Arbitron Inc. announced today that it has commercialized its Portable People Meter™ (PPM™) radio ratings service in five new local markets.
Arbitron has released radio audience estimates for the September 2009 PPM survey month (August 20-September 16) to its subscribers in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, St. Louis, Denver-Boulder, Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
The PPM radio audience estimates for these markets should be used as the basis for buy/sell transactions of radio commercial time among subscribing stations, agencies and advertisers. In addition, audience estimates from the July and August PPM survey months, which Arbitron had previously released as "pre-currency" information, are now designated as "currency" data. The Spring 2009 diary-based radio audience report (April 2-June 24) is no longer deemed "currency" for buy/sell transactions.
PPM audience estimates are now the buy/sell "currency" in 25 local markets. These markets account for more than 50 percent of the estimated radio station revenue in all Arbitron-rated markets.
On December 31, 2009, Arbitron plans to commercialize the PPM radio ratings service in Portland, Oregon, Sacramento, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo, San Antonio, Kansas City and Las Vegas with the release of the December PPM survey report (November 12-December 9).
About Arbitron
Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is a media and marketing research firm serving the media – radio, television, cable, online radio and out-of-home – as well as advertisers and advertising agencies. Arbitron’s core businesses are measuring network and local market radio audiences across the United States; surveying the retail, media and product patterns of local market consumers; and providing application software used for analyzing media audience and marketing information data. The company has developed the Portable People Meter™, a new technology for media and marketing research.
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Portable People Meter™ and PPM™ are marks of Arbitron Inc.
Arbitron Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this release that are not strictly historical, including the statements regarding expectations for 2009 and any other statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future, may be "forward-looking" statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those suggested or indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, among other things, the current global economic recession and the upheaval in the credit markets and financial services industry, competition, our ability to develop and successfully market new products and technologies, our ability to successfully commercialize our Portable People Meter™ service, the growth rates and cyclicality of markets we serve, our ability to expand our business in new markets, our ability to successfully identify, consummate and integrate appropriate acquisitions, the impact of increased costs of data collection including a trend toward increasing incidence of cell phone-only households, litigation and other contingent liabilities including intellectual property matters, our compliance with applicable laws and regulations and changes in applicable laws and regulations, our ability to achieve projected efficiencies, cost reductions, sales growth and earnings, and international economic, political, legal and business factors. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in our SEC filings, including our 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release and the Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
SOURCE: Arbitron Inc.
