Increasing number of unaccredited Portable People Meter markets used to compile national data leads to change in accreditation status
COLUMBIA, MD; December 6, 2010 ” Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) announced today that the Media Rating Council, Inc. � (MRC) has withdrawn its accreditation for the Company’s RADAR � (Radio’s All Dimension Audience Research) and Nationwide network and national radio audience services. The withdrawal is effective with RADAR 107, which is scheduled to release on December 13, 2010 and with the Fall 2010 Nationwide report, which is scheduled to release in early March 2011. The MRC informed Arbitron that its Board of Directors elected to withdraw accreditation for RADAR and Nationwide because the two services incorporate data from an increasing number of Portable People MeterTM (PPMTM) markets that are not accredited by the MRC.
The accreditation process for the Portable People Meter service is ongoing. Of the 43 markets where the PPM service is currently commercialized only those data produced by the PPM services in Houston-Galveston, Riverside-San Bernardino, and Minneapolis-St. Paul are accredited by the MRC.
Because the withdrawal of accreditation for RADAR occurred late in the production cycle for the release of the RADAR 107 estimates, representation of accreditation from software, data files and related materials will not be removed. Arbitron will directly inform all subscribers to the RADAR 107 data of the change in accreditation status. Arbitron intends to continue to use commercially reasonable efforts in good faith to pursue MRC accreditation of its PPM ratings service in each market where it has commercialized or is currently scheduled to commercialize the service, regain MRC accreditation of the RADAR and Nationwide services, and maintain MRC accreditation of currently accredited PPM, diary and software services.
Arbitron continues to comply with the minimum requirements of the MRC Voluntary Code of Conduct.
