Arbitron Field Tests a Portable People Meter That Tracks Unencoded Radio Stations

Arbitron successfully downloads audio matching software into seperate 50-person test panel;  Demonstrates ability to create "dual-function" PPMs using current hardware

NEW YORK; September 11, 2006 – Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) announced today that it is field testing the addition of an audio matching capability to the Portable People Meter (PPM^SM) electronic ratings system which would allow the PPM to track audiences to radio stations that choose not to encode their signals.

The dual-function meter is capable of identifying a radio station using two methods of detection using existing Portable People Meter hardware.

First, a dual-function PPM can detect inaudible codes in the audio of stations that are equipped with the Arbitron PPM encoder. In addition, a dual-function PPM can also collect audio signatures for any radio station, which are later matched to signatures collected by an in-market monitoring system.

Arbitron’s current test is designed to calibrate radio listening estimates produced by audio matching to the estimates produced by the PPM encoding system for the same set of stations.  [ Full Press Release at Arbitron.com ]