Arbitron Updates its MRC Accreditation Status
11 Janeiro 2010 - 8:21PM
PR Newswire (US)
COLUMBIA, Md., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arbitron Inc.
(NYSE:ARB) today issued the following statement regarding the
status of the Company's application for accreditation by the Media
Rating Council (MRC) of the monthly Average Quarter Hour (AQH)
radio ratings data produced by the Arbitron Portable People
Meter(TM) (PPM(TM)) radio ratings service in 21 local markets.
Arbitron has been informed by the MRC that it has accredited the
monthly AQH radio ratings data produced by the PPM service in the
Minneapolis-St. Paul market - which joins Houston-Galveston and
Riverside-San Bernardino as accredited markets for Arbitron's PPM
ratings service. Additionally, Arbitron has been notified that the
MRC will deny accreditation to PPM services in the following local
markets: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver,
Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix,
Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Diego, Seattle, Tampa-St. Petersburg,
and Washington, D.C. Further, the MRC closed without action audits
for two California markets (San Francisco and San Jose) and these
two markets remain unaccredited. Arbitron will collaborate with the
MRC to re-audit each of these markets in 2010. The Company is
encouraged by the accreditation of Minneapolis-St. Paul, which
further validates our Radio First methodology. The Company
understands the MRC's need to close out old audits. Arbitron
believes that across all of its PPM markets it has demonstrated
significant progress and ongoing commitment to improvement
requested by the MRC. The Company continues to adhere to the MRC
accreditation process, and looks forward to working together with
the MRC on that process. 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(TM), a new
technology for media and marketing research. PPM ratings are based
on audience estimates and are the opinion of Arbitron and should
not be relied on for precise accuracy or precise representativeness
of a demographic or radio market. Portable People Mete(TM)r and
PPM(TM) are marks of Arbitron Inc. Arbitron Forward-Looking
Statements Statements in this release that are not strictly
historical, including the statements regarding expectations for
2010 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(TM)
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. DATASOURCE: Arbitron Inc. CONTACT:
Deidre Blackwood of Arbitron Inc., +1-410-312-8523,
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