Eleven More PPM Markets Receive MRC Accreditation

Today we are announcing that the Media Rating Council has accredited 11 additional PPM markets: Atlanta; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Kansas City; Milwaukee-Racine; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo; St. Louis; and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.

These 11 markets join Houston-Galveston; Minneapolis-St. Paul; and Riverside-San Bernardino as accredited markets for Arbitron's PPM ratings service, bringing the total number of MRC-accredited PPM markets to 14.

One reason we have earned MRC accreditation in these additional markets and have maintained our current accreditations is the improvements in sample quality delivered by our continuous improvement programs. These programs are very important to our continued success.

Arbitron is committed to continued involvement with the MRC as we work to increase the number of accredited markets. The MRC staff and members of the audit committee, as well as other customer input, have played an important role in helping us develop a number of our quality initiatives.

These programs can be as involved as our targeted in-person recruitment effort or as straightforward as the use of text messages to encourage panel compliance. All of them have contributed to the enhanced quality of our PPM services.

If you had the opportunity to attend our March 24 PPM client briefing, you know that we continue to focus on meeting or exceeding quality benchmarks. By way of a single example, the average PPM daily in-tab rate for persons aged 6 and older is now 84.4%—11% higher than in 2008. For persons aged 18 to 34, the average is 80%—16% higher than 2008.

There is more work to be done. Thirty-four PPM markets have yet to be accredited by the MRC. We will continue to work with the MRC, with the goal of achieving accreditation for our Portable People Meter radio ratings across all PPM markets.

You may read the press release here. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call your Arbitron representative.

Sincerely,



Bill Kerr
President & Chief Executive Officer
Arbitron Inc.