Arbitron Identifies Market-Level Cell-Phone-Only Household Estimates

COLUMBIA, Md., July 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) announced today that for the first time it has compiled population estimates for cell-phone-only (CPO) households down to the local market level (see related map).

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"We believe Arbitron is the first market researcher to track market-level cell-phone-only penetration," said Bob Henrick, Executive Vice President Customer Solutions at Arbitron. "We use the county-level CPO penetration results from our sampling operations as a building block to produce metro-level CPO penetration estimates.

Based on survey data for Arbitron's 151 diary markets combined with the National Health Interview Survey, Arbitron estimates that the CPO penetration rates vary from as low as 5 percent in Hamptons-Riverhead, New York to as high as 38 percent in Bryan-College Station, Texas. The data indicates that there is a wide variation by region and market characteristics such as percent of the urban/suburban/rural population and age and ethnic distribution of the market population.

Arbitron introduced CPO sampling in 151 diary markets with its Spring 2009 survey to enable measurement of people who have "cut the cord" and can not be reached by landline. All Portable People Meter(TM) panels include cell-phone-only households.

These CPO penetration estimates are based on more than 154,000 surveys that Arbitron has received from households in 151 diary markets.

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, 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.

Arbitron Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this release that are not strictly historical, including the statements regarding expectations for 2009 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(TM) 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 2008 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.

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