MRC denies PPM accreditation.

Arbitron has applied to the Media Rating Council (MRC) for accreditation of its Portable People Meter (PPM) Services in Philadelphia and New York. These markets are the first to use Arbitron’s Radio First methodology.

Independent external audits of the Philadelphia and New York PPM Services were completed during 2007 and an MRC audit committee, comprised of MRC members representing a large number of users of the PPM services, including radio stations and groups, advertisers, agencies, and trade associations, met on multiple occasions to review and discuss the results of the audits. Additionally, Arbitron subsequently interacted with the audit committee to respond to audit questions and audit committee concerns.

The audit committee voted not to grant accreditation to the Philadelphia and New York PPM Services at this time and to conclude the 2007 audits. Moving forward the MRC will be assessing the impact of Arbitron’s planned initiatives for improving panel results in these markets to eventually enable successful completion of the accreditation process. As part of the accreditation process a new audit will be required in 2008. These conclusions were recently ratified by both the MRC Radio Committee and the MRC Board of Directors.

The MRC believes that electronic measurement such as Arbitron’s PPM technology can represent an improvement over existing non-electronic audience measurements, and encourages Arbitron to continue in its extensive good faith efforts to achieve accreditation of the Philadelphia and New York Services.