MRC Accredits Eight Additional PPM Markets

Arbitron Inc. today announced that the Media Rating Council Inc. (MRC) has accredited the radio average-quarter-hour monthly ratings data produced by the Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings service in eight additional markets: Cleveland, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver-Boulder, Detroit, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, Pittsburgh, Portland OR, and Nassau/Suffolk (Long Island).

The MRC has also voted to continue accreditation in eighteen markets–Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee-Racine, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Riverside-San Bernardino, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.

In total, 26 markets now display the MRC double checkmark logo for the radio average-quarter-hour monthly ratings data produced by the Portable People Meter radio ratings service.

The MRC voted to not grant accreditation at this time in the remaining 22 PPM markets, and therefore PPM data in those markets continue to be unaccredited.

"MRC accreditation for our PPM markets is a company-wide priority at Arbitron, and we are pleased the MRC continues to recognize our ongoing efforts to improve Sample Performance Indicators and other quality metrics in our Portable People Meter ratings services," said Gregg Lindner, executive vice president, Service Innovation and Chief Research Officer, Arbitron Inc. "Continuous improvement remains our watchword, for PPM and for all our ratings and software offerings and we are focused on earning accreditation for the balance of our PPM markets."

"We congratulate Arbitron for the continued improvements of its quality metrics and on earning accreditation in eight additional markets," said George Ivie, Executive Director, Media Rating Council. "Arbitron has clearly made progress in meeting MRC requirements, particularly in most of the larger PPM markets. We look forward to future audits and continued progress."