Arbitron Inc. Provides Full-Year 2011 Guidance

COLUMBIA, Md., Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) today announced financial guidance for the full-year ending December 31, 2011.

The Company is providing 2011 guidance in order to detail the financial implications of the multi-year, multi-market contract renewal signed by Clear Channel Radio as well as those of the recent signing by Univision Radio to multi-year contracts for Arbitron's Portable People Meter™ radio ratings services.

Arbitron expects 2011 revenue to increase between 6 percent and 8 percent over its 2010 revenue. For the full-year 2010, Arbitron continues to expect a revenue increase near the lower end of the previously announced range of 2 percent to 6 percent versus the Company's 2009 revenue of $385.0 million.

Earnings per share (diluted) is expected to be between $1.90 and $2.05 for the full-year 2011.

Investor Conference Call: Schedule and Access

Arbitron will host a conference call at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, December 9, 2010.

The Company invites you to listen to the call toll-free by dialing (888) 562-3356. The conference call can be accessed from outside of the United States by dialing (973) 582-2700. To participate, users will need to use the following code: 30309082.

The call will also be available live on the Internet at the following sites: www.arbitron.com and www.streetevents.com.

A replay of the call will be available from 1:00 p.m. on December 9, 2010, through 11:59 p.m. on December 16, 2010. To access the replay toll-free, please call (800) 642-1687 in the United States or (706) 645-9291 if you're calling from outside of the United States. To access the replay, users will need to enter the following code: 30309082.

About Arbitron

Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is a media and marketing research firm serving the media – radio, television, cable 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™(PPM™) and PPM 360™, new technologies for media and marketing research.

Portable People Meter™, PPM™ and PPM 360™ are marks of Arbitron Inc.

Arbitron Forward-Looking Statements

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," "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:

• 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 methodologies in light of governmental actions, including investigation, regulation, legislation or litigation, customer or industry group activism, or adverse community or public relations efforts;
• complete the Media Rating Council, Inc. ("MRC") audits of our local market Arbitron Portable People Meter  (PPM) ratings services in a timely manner and successfully obtain and/or maintain MRC accreditation for our audience measurement services;
• successfully commercialize our PPM service;
• design, recruit, and maintain PPM panels that appropriately balance research quality, panel size and operational cost;
• absorb costs related to legal proceedings and governmental entity interactions and avoid any related fines, limitations or conditions on our business activities, including, without limitation, by meeting or exceeding our commitments and agreements with various governmental entities;
• successfully develop, implement and fund initiatives designed to increase sample quality;
• 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 households, privacy concerns, technology changes, and/or government regulations;
• provide appropriate levels of operational capacity and funding to support the more costly identification and recruitment of younger demographics into our panels and samples;
• successfully manage the impact on our business of the recent 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;
• compete with companies that may have financial, marketing, sales, technical or other advantages over us;
• effectively respond to rapidly changing technological needs of our customer base, including creating proprietary technology and systems to support our cell phone sampling plans, and new customer services that meet these needs in a timely manner;
• successfully execute our business strategies, including evaluating and, where appropriate, 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;
• successfully develop and implement technology solutions to encode and/or measure new forms of media content and delivery, and advertising in an increasingly competitive environment;
• successfully develop, implement, and launch our cross-platform initiatives; and
• renew contracts with key customers.

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, 2009, 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.

SOURCE Arbitron Inc.