COLUMBIA, Md., July 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arbitron Inc. announced today that it has commercialized its Portable People Meter(TM) radio ratings service in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, Florida market and is releasing radio audience estimates for the June 2009 PPM(TM) survey month to its subscribers in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood.
Effective today, the PPM radio audience estimates for this market may be used as the basis for buy/sell transactions of radio commercial time among subscribing stations, agencies and advertisers. In addition, the April and May PPM survey months, which Arbitron had previously released as "pre-currency" information, are now designated as "currency" data. The Winter 2009 diary-based radio audience report (January 8 - April 1, 2009) has been retired and is no longer deemed "currency" for buy/sell transactions.
"We are commercializing our Portable People Meter radio ratings service in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood in order to meet our obligations to our customers and to the radio industry at large," said Michael Skarzynski, Arbitron Chief Executive Officer and President.
"The industry needs current estimates of the radio audience in the nation's largest markets to facilitate an efficient buy-sell process for radio advertising," continued Skarzynski. "Our goal with the commercialization of the PPM is to help radio remain competitive in an increasingly challenging media marketplace."
About the Portable People Meter
The Arbitron Portable People Meter system uses a passive audience measurement device - about the size of a small cell phone - to track consumer exposure to media and entertainment, including broadcast, cable and satellite television; terrestrial, satellite and online radio as well as cinema advertising and many types of place-based electronic media. Carried throughout the day by randomly selected survey participants, the PPM device can track when and where they watch television, listen to radio as well as how they interact with other forms of media and entertainment.
The PPM detects inaudible codes embedded in the audio portion of media and entertainment content delivered by broadcasters, content providers and distributors. At the end of the day, the meter is placed in a docking station that extracts the codes and sends them to a central computer. The PPM is equipped with a motion sensor, a patented quality control feature unique to the system, which allows Arbitron to confirm the compliance of the PPM survey participants every day.
About Arbitron Inc.
Arbitron Inc. 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.
Portable People Meter(TM) and PPM(TM) are marks of Arbitron Inc.
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.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements regarding Arbitron Inc. and its subsidiaries in this document that are not historical in nature, particularly those that utilize terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," or "plans," or comparable terminology, are forward-looking statements based on current expectations about future events, which we have derived from information currently available to us. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our results to be materially different from results implied in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, in no particular order, whether we will be able to:
-- absorb costs related to legal proceedings and governmental entity interactions and avoid related fines, limitations, or conditions on our business activities; -- successfully commercialize our Portable People Meter(TM) service; -- successfully manage the impact on our business of the current economic downturn generally, and in the advertising market, in particular, including, without limitation, the insolvency of any of our customers or the impact of such downturn on our customers' ability to fulfill their payment obligations to us; -- successfully maintain and promote industry usage of our services, a critical mass of broadcaster encoding, and the proper understanding of our audience measurement services and methodology in light of governmental regulation, legislation, litigation, activism, or adverse public relations efforts; -- compete with companies that may have financial, marketing, sales, technical, or other advantages over us; -- successfully design, recruit and maintain PPM panels that appropriately balance research quality, panel size, and operational cost; -- successfully develop, implement, and fund initiatives designed to increase sample sizes; -- complete the Media Rating Council, Inc. ("MRC") audits of our local market PPM ratings services in a timely manner and successfully obtain and/or maintain MRC accreditation for our audience measurement business; -- renew contracts with key customers; -- successfully execute our business strategies, including entering into potential acquisition, joint-venture or other material third-party agreements; -- effectively manage the impact, if any, of any further ownership shifts in the radio and advertising agency industries; -- effectively respond to rapidly changing technological needs of our customer base, including creating new proprietary software systems, such as software systems to support our cell phone-only sampling plans, and new customer services that meet these needs in a timely manner; -- successfully manage the impact on costs of data collection due to lower respondent cooperation in surveys, consumer trends including a trend toward increasing incidence of cell phone-only households, privacy concerns, technology changes, and/or government regulations; -- successfully develop and implement technology solutions to encode and/or measure new forms of media content, delivery and advertising in an increasingly competitive environment; and -- realize the anticipated savings from the Company's workforce and expense reduction program.
There are a number of additional important factors that could cause actual events or our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the risk factors set forth in the caption "ITEM 1A. -- RISK FACTORS" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008, and elsewhere, and any subsequent periodic or current reports filed by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In addition, any forward-looking statements contained in this document represent our estimates only as of the date hereof, and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change.
Arbitron Inc.
CONTACT: Jessica Benbow of Arbitron Inc., +1-410-312-8363,
jessica.benbow@arbitron.com
Web Site: http://www.arbitron.com/
