Arbitron Welcomes Opportunity to Showcase Benefits Of Electronic Media Ratings to House Oversight Committee

COLUMBIA, Md., Nov. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB), has been invited to testify on December 2, 2009 by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding its electronic media measurement service. The following is its response to the Committee's announcement:

"Arbitron welcomes this opportunity to discuss the importance of electronic measurement, the effectiveness of the Portable People Meter(TM) (PPM(TM)) service, the value of the data it produces, and our responsible approach to the deployment of the service," said Michael Skarzynski, President and Chief Executive Officer for Arbitron. "Arbitron looks forward to sharing with the Committee our expertise and insights based on our long history and extensive experience in gathering and disseminating the quality data that is used throughout the radio industry by broadcasters, advertisers, and agencies."

"Arbitron launched this innovative electronic media ratings service to help support the radio industry's objective to have relevant, reliable data that enables it to compete for its share of advertising revenue," said Mr. Skarzynski. "We have been proactive in our efforts to share relevant and pertinent information with our stakeholders, Congress and other state and Federal government agencies and continue to welcome opportunities to showcase the value of radio and the importance of electronic measurement."

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.

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

PPM ratings are based on audience estimates and are the opinion of Arbitron and should not be relied on for precise accuracy or precise representativeness of a demographic or radio market.

Arbitron Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this release that are not strictly historical, including the statements regarding expectations for 2009 and any other statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future, may be "forward-looking" statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those suggested or indicated by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, among other things, the current global economic recession and the upheaval in the credit markets and financial services industry, competition, our ability to develop and successfully market new products and technologies, our ability to successfully commercialize our Portable People Meter(TM) service, the growth rates and cyclicality of markets we serve, our ability to expand our business in new markets, our ability to successfully identify, consummate and integrate appropriate acquisitions, the impact of increased costs of data collection including a trend toward increasing incidence of cell phone-only households, litigation and other contingent liabilities including intellectual property matters, our compliance with applicable laws and regulations and changes in applicable laws and regulations, our ability to achieve projected efficiencies, cost reductions, sales growth and earnings, and international economic, political, legal and business factors. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in our SEC filings, including our 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release and the Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

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

SOURCE Arbitron Inc.