Arbitron denied MRC Accreditation in 18 Markets.

Arbitron Inc. issued the following statement regarding the status of the Company’s application for accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC) of the monthly Average Quarter Hour (AQH) radio ratings data produced by the Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM) radio ratings service in 21 local markets.

Arbitron has been notified that the MRC will deny accreditation to PPM services in the following local markets: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Diego, Seattle, Tampa-St. Petersburg, and Washington, DC. Further, the MRC closed without action audits for two California markets (San Francisco and San Jose) and these two markets remain unaccredited. Arbitron will collaborate with the MRC to re-audit each of these markets in 2010.

Arbitron has been informed by the MRC that it has accredited the monthly AQH radio ratings data produced by the PPM service in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market – which joins Houston-Galveston and Riverside-San Bernardino as accredited markets for Arbitron’s PPM ratings service.