Media Rating Council grants accreditation to Arbitron’s TAPSCAN Web.

Arbitron Inc. 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 MeterTM (“PPMTM”) 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.

“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.