Media Rating Council grants accreditation to eight additional Arbitron Portable People Meter markets

COLUMBIA, Md., Aug. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) today announced that the Media Rating Council^® Inc. (MRC) has accredited the radio average-quarter-hour monthly ratings data produced by the Portable People Meter™ (PPM^®) ratings service in eight additional markets: Cleveland, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver-Boulder, Detroit, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, Pittsburgh, Portland OR, and Nassau/Suffolk (Long Island).

The MRC has also voted to continue accreditation in eighteen markets–Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee-Racine, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Riverside-San Bernardino, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.

In total, 26 markets now display the MRC double checkmark logo for the radio average-quarter-hour monthly ratings data produced by the Portable People Meter radio ratings service.

The MRC voted to not grant accreditation at this time in the remaining 22 PPM markets, and therefore PPM data in those markets continue to be unaccredited.

"MRC accreditation for our PPM markets is a company-wide priority at Arbitron, and we are pleased the MRC continues to recognize our ongoing efforts to improve Sample Performance Indicators and other quality metrics in our Portable People Meter ratings services," said Gregg Lindner, executive vice president, Service Innovation and Chief Research Officer, Arbitron Inc. "Continuous improvement remains our watchword, for PPM and for all our ratings and software offerings and we are focused on earning accreditation for the balance of our PPM markets."

"We congratulate Arbitron for the continued improvements of its quality metrics and on earning accreditation in eight additional markets," said George Ivie, Executive Director, Media Rating Council. "Arbitron has clearly made progress in meeting MRC requirements, particularly in most of the larger PPM markets. We look forward to future audits and continued progress."

About Arbitron
Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is an international media and marketing research firm serving the media–radio, television, cable and out-of-home; the mobile industry as well as advertising agencies and advertisers around the world. Arbitron's businesses include: measuring network and local market radio audiences across the United States; surveying the retail, media and product patterns of U.S. consumers; providing mobile audience measurement and analytics in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia, and developing application software used for analyzing media audience and marketing information data. The Company has developed the Portable People Meter (PPM) and the PPM 360™, new technologies for media and marketing research.

About the Media Rating Council
The Media Rating Council is a non-profit industry association, established in 1964, composed of leading television, radio, print and internet companies, as well as advertisers, advertising agencies and trade associations whose goal is to ensure measurement services that are valid, reliable and effective. Measurement services desiring MRC accreditation are required to disclose to their customers all methodological aspects of their service; comply with the MRC Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research; and submit to MRC-designed audits to authenticate and illuminate their procedures. In addition, the MRC membership actively pursues research issues they consider priorities in an effort to improve the quality of research in the marketplace. Currently approximately 85 research products are audited by the MRC. Additional information about MRC can be found at http://www.mediaratingcouncil.org/.

Portable People Meter™, PPM^® and PPM 360™ are marks of Arbitron Inc.
Media Rating Council® and the "double checkmark" logo design are registered marks of the Media Rating Council.

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.

This press release includes information that could constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as 'will', 'expect', 'should', 'could', 'shall' and similar expressions. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties concerning Nielsen's proposed acquisition of Arbitron, Arbitron's expected financial performance, as well as Arbitron's strategic and operational plans and actual results and events could differ materially from what presently is expected. The potential risks and uncertainties include the possibility that the transaction will not close or that the closing may be delayed; the possibility that the conditions to the closing of the transaction may not be satisfied; the transaction may involve unexpected costs, liabilities or delays; the outcome of any legal proceedings related to the transaction; the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the transaction agreement; general economic conditions; conditions in the markets Nielsen and Arbitron are engaged in; behavior of customers, suppliers and competitors (including their reaction to the transaction); technological developments; as well as legal and regulatory rules affecting Nielsen's and Arbitron's business and specific risk factors discussed in other releases and public filings made by Nielsen and Arbitron (including the their respective filings with the SEC). This list of factors is not intended to be exhaustive. Such forward-looking statements only speak as of the date of this press release, and we assume no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking statement made by us or on our behalf as a result of new information, future events, or other factors.

SOURCE Arbitron Inc.