Virgin Radio Ranked Number One in September Arbitron Webcast Ratings; New Policies Enable Arbitron To Release Ratings 12 Days After The Close Of The Month

Business Wire, Oct 12, 2001

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 12, 2001

Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) today announced that Virgin Radio (www.virginradio.co.uk) ranked number one in the September Arbitron Webcast Ratings(SM) with 342,600 aggregate tuning hours (ATH) - the sum total of all hours that listeners tune to a given channel.

RadioWave's Hits Happen channel (www.radiowave.com), ranked number two with 247,700 ATH and college radio station, KPLU (www.kplu.com) from Pacific Lutheran University ranked number three with 212,500 ATH.

Arbitron released the September Webcast Ratings within 12 days after the close of the month by implementing new policies that require Arbitron to receive data from webcasters and their content delivery networks in a consistent and timely manner.

"In the past, we worked to include all stations and channels in the Webcast Ratings, even if that meant delaying the results while we waited for data," said Bill Rose, vice president and general manager, Arbitron Webcast Services, Arbitron Inc. "Customers told us that they need the ratings soon after the end of the month. We are pleased that we have been able to work with our webcasters to get the data out in a timely manner."

Some channels and stations previously reported in Arbitron Webcast Ratings did not meet the new service policies of providing Arbitron with data in a timely and consistent manner, and therefore, are not included this month. Many of these stations and channels anticipate meeting Arbitron's policies and being reported again in upcoming months.

The rankings included in the September 2001 Arbitron Webcast Ratings are based on those stations and channels that have provided Arbitron with access to their server data. The ratings may not reflect all tuning for the measured stations or channels since Arbitron may have received incomplete server data or some data that was not usable.

Background and Methodology

Arbitron Webcast Ratings debuted with October 1999 data as the world's first streaming media ratings service. Arbitron Webcast Ratings provides ratings for streamed media because webcasters need objective, third-party audience measurement to demonstrate the value of their audiences to agencies and advertisers. Arbitron Webcast Ratings is a server-side measurement, which captures all tuning to participating streamed media channels by compiling a near census of Internet tuning sessions.

About Arbitron

Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is an international media and marketing research firm serving radio broadcasters, cable companies, advertisers, advertising agencies and outdoor advertising companies in the United States, Mexico and Europe. 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. Arbitron Webcast Services measures the audiences of audio and video content on the Internet, commonly known as webcasts. The Company is developing the Portable People Meter, a new technology for radio, TV and cable ratings.

Arbitron's marketing and business units are supported by a world-renowned research and technology organization located in Columbia, Maryland. Arbitron has approximately 750 full-time employees; its executive offices are located in New York City.

Through its Scarborough Research joint venture with VNU Media Measurement & Information, Arbitron also provides media and marketing research services to the broadcast television, magazine, newspaper and online industries.