Arbitron's Custom Sports Services Debuts Event Retention Index

NEW YORK, Nov. 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Arbitron Inc.'s (NYSE: ARB) Custom Sports Services announced the creation of the Event Retention Index (ERI), a new metric for its Portable People Meter™ Radio Ratings service subscribers that can provide more clarity on the extent to which audiences "stay tuned" to sports broadcasts.  

The Event Retention Index estimates the proportion of a station's audience that stays tuned for the complete quarter hours (all fifteen minutes) during a game relative to the average of the top 20 stations in the same market during M-F 6A-7P.  For example, an Event Retention Index of 120 would indicate that listeners are 20% more likely to stay tuned for a complete quarter hour (all fifteen minutes) of a game broadcast than the average of the top 20 stations for the M-F 6A-7P daypart.

"The Event Retention index can provide tangible evidence that people who listen to sports broadcasts 'stick around' during games and are more likely to be exposed to advertising during the broadcast," said Chris Meinhardt, Arbitron Sports Manager.  

Arbitron's Custom Sports Services measured ERI during the 2010 Major League Baseball season.  The index indicated that people who tuned to MLB play-by-play on the radio were more likely to stay tuned in to a complete quarter hour of the broadcast than listeners to typical programming among the top 20 stations.  For example, radio listeners, Persons 6+, who tuned in to an average San Diego Padres game over the course of the 2010 season were 31% more likely to listen for complete fifteen minutes of the broadcast compared with the average of the top 20 stations during the prime radio listening daypart of Monday - Friday 6:00 am and 7:00 pm.  In Minneapolis, Persons 6+ who listened to a Minnesota Twins broadcast were 40% more likely to stay tuned, and baseball listeners in Tampa Bay were 10% more likely to listen for an entire 15 minute segment of a Rays baseball broadcast.

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.

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.

SOURCE Arbitron Inc.