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By: Akhil Anand Yadav

Arbitron

Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is a media and marketing research firmserving the mediaradio, television, cable and out-of-homeas wellas advertisers and advertising agencies. Arbitrons core businessesare measuring network and local-market radio audiences across theUnited 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. Thecompany has developed the Portable People Meter, a newtechnology for media and marketing research.

Arbitrons headquarters and its world-renowned research andengineering organizations are located in Columbia, Maryland.

Arbitron is a consumer research company in the UnitedStates that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was

founded as American Research Bureau (ARB) by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. basedCoffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s. The company'sinitial business was the collection of broadcast televisionratings .

The company changed its name to Arbitron in the mid 1960s,the namesake of the Arbitron System - a centralizedstatistical computer with leased lines to viewers' homes to

monitor their activity. Deployed in New York, it gave instantratings data on what people were watching. A reportingboard would light up to indicate what home was listening towhat broadcast.

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INFORMATION SERVICESy Local radio ratings in the United Statesy N etwork and national radio audience measurement in the United

Statesy Local market and regional qualitative consumer and media usage

information in the United Statesy Software services to help customers analyze and understand media

and consumer data

M ethods

Survey Arbitron's syndicated radio ratings service collects data byselecting a random sample of a population throughout the U.S.,primarily in 294 metropolitan areas, using a paper diary servicetwo to four times a year and Portable People Meter (PPM)electronic audience measurement service 365 days a year.

The term commonly used in the radio industry for these ratings

is Arbitron book , a carryover from the era when ratings werepublished in a soft-cover report that was mailed to clients. Morespecifically, in the diary-measured markets these reports werecalled the Spring book , Summer book , Fall book , and Winter book. Between these "books," Arbitron releases interim monthlyreports called Arbitrends, which contain data from the previousthree months known as "rolling average" reports. The two intermreports would be known, for example, as "Spring, Phase I" and

"Spring Phase II. Arbitron recruits diary survey respondents to note their listeninghabits in a seven-day paper diary and mail it back to Arbitron. Therespondents are paid a small cash incentive for their participation.Turnaround time for release of data from the end of the surveyperiod is approximately three weeks.

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After collection, the data is marketed to radio broadcasters, radionetworks, cable companies, advertisers, advertising agencies,out-of-home advertising companies and the online radioindustry. [3]Major ratings products include c ume (the cumulativenumber of unique listeners over a period), average quarter hour ( AQH Share - the average number of people listening in agiven 15-minute period), time spent listening , (TSL), and marketbreakdowns by age, gender and race/ethnic demographic. It isimportant to understand that the "cume" only counts a listener once, whereas the AQH is a product of "cume" and time spentlistening. For example, if you looked into a room and saw Fredand Jane, then 15 minutes later saw Fred with Sara. The "cume"

would be 3 (Fred, Jane, Sara) and the AQH would be 2 (anaverage of two people in the room in a given 15 minute period).

Portable People M eter R esponding to requests from its customers radio broadcasters,ad agencies and advertisers that expressed their interest in thecollection of more accurate ratings data, Arbitron introduced

the Portable People Meter (PPM) service in 2007. The PPM is awearable portable device much like a pager or cell phone, thatelectronically gathers inaudible codes that identify the source of abroadcast, such as a radio station. Arbitron recruits andcompensates a cross section of consumers to wear the meter for an average of one year and up to two years. The audienceestimates generated from each monthly survey is used as thebuy/sell currency for radio stations and advertisers/agencies. Asof December 2009, the PPM is the currency in thirty threemarkets including: Houston , Philadelphia , NewYork , Atlanta , Detroit , Long Island , Middlesex -Somerset -Union , Chicago , Los Angeles , R iverside -San Bernardino , SanFrancisco , Jacksonville , Baltimore , and San Jose . By year end2010, 48 markets will be measured using the PPM.

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ARBITRON TECHNOLOGY SERVICES INDIA

A rbitron Technology Services India Pvt. Ltd., a wholly ownedsubsidiary of A rbitron Inc., is looking for talented, motivated peoplewith a proven track record in software engineering and development,technology development or research analytics to join our team in Kochi.Successful candidates will have the opportunity to participate in thedevelopment of next-generation products and service offerings in anexpanding and exciting work environment.

A t A rbitron Technology Services India, we believe a company is only asgood as its people. Our mission is to create a truly diverse workplacewhere the uniqueness of each individual is sought, valued and respectedin every aspect of the organization. Our performance-oriented cultureseeks to empower our employees to innovate and excel through:

y Participation in the companys successat A rbitron, employeeinvolvement is the norm

y Individual initiative combined with teamwork y A Wi Fi-enabled workplace with an integrated outdoor garden to

provide workplace flexibilityy Indoor recreation amenities to help employees manage stress andachieve a work/life balancey C ompetitive compensation

Arbitron, an international media and market research firm servingthe media radio, television, cable, online radio, advertisers andadvertising agencies in the US and Europe for the last 60 years,

has set up its fully-owned subsidiary, Arbitron India, in Kochi.

The centre was formally inaugurated on January 5, 2009, bySteve Morris, chairman, president and CEO, Arbitron Inc, atTejomaya, L&T's new IT Park located inside Infopark in Kochi.

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The Kochi centre had been set up as a world class facility for software engineering, R &D and product development to support

Arbitron's vision to serve the media and market research industry

worldwide.

Arbitron India will also play a key role in the development of technology and providing operational support for theimplementation of research firm's flagship service, PortablePeople Meter (PPM), and other products, which are beinginstalled throughout the US and other countries.

Arbitron has chosen India to enable implementation of its strategicworldwide initiatives, and Kochi, with its serene environment, isfast emerging as an important IT destination, attracting talent poolacross India and abroad.

Following the setting up of its back office in Kochi, the company isbelieved to be recruiting the best and the brightest talent availablearound the world, who would have the opportunity to work on thelatest cutting edge technologies, product innovation, media,mobile, telecom R &D, media and market research, statistics andanalytics.