Arbitron Clarifies MRC Accreditation Status of Diary-Based, Local Market Radio Ratings Services

Arbitron Clarifies MRC Accreditation Status of Diary-Based, Local Market Radio Ratings Services

COLUMBIA, Md., April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) today clarified statements regarding the Media Rating Council(R) accreditation status of its diary-based radio ratings services that were made during its first quarter 2009 earnings call on April 21, 2009.

While the diary service is currently accredited by Media Rating Council, the MRC did not take a vote in its first quarter meeting regarding renewal of accreditation. The MRC has indicated that the latest audit of Arbitron's diary-based services remains in process and a vote on accreditation renewal is expected to occur later this year.

About Arbitron

Arbitron Inc. (NYSE:ARB) is a media and marketing research firm serving the media -- radio, television, cable, online radio and out-of-home -- as well as advertisers and advertising agencies. Arbitron's core businesses are measuring network and local market radio audiences across the United States; surveying the retail, media and product patterns of local market consumers; and providing application software used for analyzing media audience and marketing information data. The company has developed the Portable People Meter, a new technology for media and marketing research.

Arbitron's headquarters and its world-renowned research and technology organizations are located in Columbia, Maryland.

Portable People Meter(TM) and PPM(TM) are marks of Arbitron Inc.

Arbitron Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements regarding Arbitron Inc. and its subsidiaries in this document that are not historical in nature, particularly those that utilize terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," or "plans," or comparable terminology, are forward-looking statements based on current expectations about future events, which we have derived from information currently available to us. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our results to be materially different from results implied in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, in no particular order, whether we will be able to:

-- absorb costs related to legal proceedings and governmental entity
interactions and avoid related fines, limitations, or conditions on
our business activities;
-- successfully commercialize our Portable People Meter(TM) service;
-- successfully manage the impact on our business of the current economic
downturn generally, and in the advertising market, in particular,
including, without limitation, the insolvency of any of our customers
or the impact of such downturn on our customers' ability to fulfill
their payment obligations to us;
-- successfully maintain and promote industry usage of our services, a
critical mass of broadcaster encoding, and the proper understanding of
our audience measurement services and methodology in light of
governmental regulation, legislation, litigation, activism, or adverse
public relations efforts;
-- compete with companies that may have financial, marketing, sales,
technical, or other advantages over us;
-- successfully design, recruit and maintain PPM panels that
appropriately balance research quality, panel size, and operational
cost;
-- successfully develop, implement, and fund initiatives designed to
increase sample sizes;
-- complete the Media Rating Council, Inc. ("MRC") audits of our local
market PPM ratings services in a timely manner and successfully obtain
and/or maintain MRC accreditation for our audience measurement
business;
-- renew contracts with key customers;
-- successfully execute our business strategies, including entering into
potential acquisition, joint-venture or other material third-party
agreements;
-- effectively manage the impact, if any, of any further ownership shifts
in the radio and advertising agency industries;
-- effectively respond to rapidly changing technological needs of our
customer base, including creating new proprietary software systems,
such as software systems to support our cell phone-only sampling
plans, and new customer services that meet these needs in a timely
manner;
-- successfully manage the impact on costs of data collection due to
lower respondent cooperation in surveys, consumer trends including a
trend toward increasing incidence of cell phone-only households,
privacy concerns, technology changes, and/or government regulations;
-- successfully develop and implement technology solutions to encode
and/or measure new forms of media content, delivery and advertising in
an increasingly competitive environment; and
-- realize the anticipated savings from the Company's workforce and
expense reduction program.

There are a number of additional important factors that could cause actual events or our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the risk factors set forth in the caption "ITEM 1A. -- RISK FACTORS" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008, and elsewhere, and any subsequent periodic or current reports filed by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In addition, any forward-looking statements contained in this document represent our estimates only as of the date hereof, and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change.

Source: Arbitron Inc.

CONTACT: Thom Mocarsky, +1-410-312-8239 thom.mocarsky@arbitron.com, or
Jessica Benbow, +1-410-312-8363, jessica.benbow@arbitron.com, both of Arbitron
Inc.

Web Site: http://www.arbitron.com/

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