Arbitron Bolsters Sample for Diary and PPM Services with New Cell Phone Enhancements

COLUMBIA, Md., April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) announced today that effective with the Spring 2010 Diary survey and the March 2010 Portable People Meter™ ratings service, the company is now including cell phone households that rarely or never answer their landlines. The sample from cell phone households that rarely or never answer their landlines will be in addition to sample from homes that can be reached exclusively by cell phone (aka cell-phone-only). 

The boost in cell phone sample is designed to help improve sample quality for younger demographics and provide a more complete representation of the market because cell phone homes that rarely or never answer their landlines previously had little or no chance of being included in our surveys.

Arbitron estimates that with this addition, approximately 35 percent of the Persons aged 18-34 sample will come from the Cell Phone households in diary markets and approximately 40% in PPM Markets by year end 2010, on average across all markets. These enhancements are also designed to help improve sample quality for ethnic demographics.

The proportion of cell phone sample will vary by market based on cell phone penetration estimates from Arbitron's proprietary cell phone screener surveys and results from the government's National Health Institute Survey (NHIS).

What this means for Cell Phone Sampling in the Diary Service

Arbitron estimates that approximately 35 percent of its Persons aged 18-34 sample will come from the Cell Phone households and approximately 17 percent of Persons aged 12+ sample will come from the Cell Phone households for in Diary markets.

These changes represent a 70% increase in the diary market cell phone sample compared with year-end 2009.  The cell phone sample is expected to be approximately 17% of the total Persons aged 12+ Diary market sample, on average across all markets.  The Diary market cell phone sample is designed to be comprised of approximately 15 percent from cell-phone-only households (as previously communicated) plus approximately 2 additional points from cell phone homes that rarely or never use landlines.

Arbitron has experienced improvements in the Persons aged 18-34 sample performance as a result of cell phone sampling procedures that are now in place in all Diary markets in the 50 U.S. states.  These new steps are designed to further improve Arbitron's sample performance in general and among Persons aged 18-34s in specific.

What this means for Cell Phone Sampling in the PPM Service

Arbitron estimates that approximately 40 percent of the Persons aged 18-34 sample will come from the Cell Phone households and approximately 25 percent of the Persons aged 6+ sample will come from the Cell Phone households by year-end 2010 in PPM markets. The cell phone sample in PPM markets is scheduled to be comprised of approximately 20 percent cell-phone-only households (as previously communicated) plus approximately 5 additional points from cell phone homes that rarely or never use landlines.

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 device, a new technology for media and marketing research.

Portable People Meter™ and PPM™ 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.

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™ 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 2009 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.

SOURCE Arbitron Inc.