NBCUniversal Selects Arbitron to Measure Out-of-Home TV Viewing for the 2012 Summer Olympics

COLUMBIA, Md., March 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) announced today that NBCUniversal has selected the Arbitron Portable People Meter™ (PPM™) service to track out-of-home television viewing for the 2012 Olympic Summer Games airing on NBCUniversal broadcast and cable networks.

As a part of The Billion Dollar Lab, NBCUniversal's pioneering research efforts for the Beijing, Vancouver and London Olympics, NBCUniversal will have access to out-of-home Olympic viewing reports based on the approximately 69,000 PPM survey participants in 44 top U.S. media markets currently measured by Arbitron.

"We're pleased to be selected once again to participate in NBCUniversal's Billion Dollar Lab," said Carol Edwards, senior vice president, Cross Platform Services. "Television screens are everywhere and the 2012 Summer Olympics will be a 17 day, round-the-clock television event for avid fans and viewers. The Arbitron PPM service is uniquely suited to the task of tracking Olympic broadcast and cable television audiences no matter where they tune in."

The 2012 Olympic Summer Games are being held in London and other locations in the United Kingdom from July 27, 2012 through August 12, 2012.

About Arbitron Portable People Meter Services

The Arbitron Portable People Meter device is a personal and portable device that captures a consumer's exposure to media and entertainment by passively capturing an inaudible code that can be embedded in the audio content of terrestrial, satellite and online radio broadcasts, in broadcast, cable and satellite television as well as cinema advertising and many types of place-based digital media.

Determining whether a PPM panelist is at home or out-of-home is accomplished through the use of a low power RF transmitter that is designed to act as a continuous "at-home" beacon. When a PPM panelist is at home and in range of the beacon, all exposure to encoded media collected by the PPM is tagged as at-home exposure.  When the PPM panelist is out of range of the at-home beacon, all exposure to encoded media collected by the PPM is tagged as out-of-home exposure.

The Portable People Meter ratings service is deployed to measure 48 radio markets. Four of the markets–Nassau-Suffolk (Long Island); Middlesex-Somerset-Union; San Jose and Riverside-San Bernardino–are embedded in or adjacent to the larger New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco markets. The out-of-home television viewing estimates for these four embedded or adjacent markets are included in those of the larger markets.

About Arbitron

Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is an international media and marketing research firm serving the media–radio, broadcast and cable television, 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.

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.

Statements in this release that are not strictly historical, including the statements regarding expectations for 2012 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. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions, and involve various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Important factors known by the company that could cause such material differences include those referenced or discussed from time to time in our filings with the SEC, including those referenced under the heading "ITEM 1A – Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, and elsewhere, and any subsequent periodic or current reports filed by Arbitron with the SEC. 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.