Media Rating Council Grants Accreditation to Arbitron's TAPSCAN Web

COLUMBIA, Md., April 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) today announced that the Media Rating Council® (MRC) has granted accreditation to TAPSCAN Web, the most widely used Web-based sales proposal and analysis software system for radio.   TAPSCAN Web is used by over 19,000 radio sales professionals and facilitates half a million proposals to radio buyers per year.  

"Arbitron has long been committed to improving the quality of our audience measurement and sales solutions for our clients.  Receiving MRC accreditation for TAPSCAN Web is just another sign of our dedication," said Gregg Lindner, executive vice president, Service Innovation and chief research officer.  

Reports created in TAPSCAN Web using MRC accredited data from Arbitron's 234 diary and 14 accredited Arbitron Portable People Meter™ ("PPM™") markets will now carry the "double checkmark" symbol indicating that the system is accredited by the MRC.  However, sales proposals created using data from the remaining 34 unaccredited PPM markets will not carry the "double checkmark."  The MRC has accredited the monthly average-quarter-hour radio ratings data produced by the PPM service in Atlanta; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Kansas City; Milwaukee-Racine; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo; St. Louis; Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater; Houston-Galveston; Minneapolis-St. Paul and Riverside-San Bernardino.  

Proposal XML slated for June 2011

Arbitron plans to integrate its TAPSCAN Web system with Proposal XML, one of the most widely used software system for media transactions in TV and Internet.  Arbitron is targeting early June 2011 for TAPSCAN Web's full integration with Proposal XML.  The integration of TAPSCAN Web and Proposal XML will allow advertisers to buy local radio ad inventory seamlessly with other media.  

"Arbitron is always looking for ways to keep radio in the competitive buying mix.  Integrating our TAPSCAN Web and Proposal XML systems makes it easier, less costly and time consuming for advertisers to buy local radio," said Jerry Wiese, Manager of Customer Software Products.

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.

About MRC

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 60 research products are audited by the MRC. Additional information about MRC can be found at 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.

Statements in this release that are not strictly historical; including the statements regarding expectations for 2011 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 2010 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.