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Arbitron and Mediamonitor, a Company of the Marktest Group, Sign Agreement for Test of Portable People Meter Technology in Portugal 03.18.04
NEW YORK, March 18, 2004 – Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) has signed a license agreement with Mediamonitor, a company of the Marktest Group, Portugal’s leading market research and audience measurement organization. The agreement gives Mediamonitor the right to test the Portable People Meter system and its audio encoding technology for radio and television audience measurement in Portugal.
The Portable People Meter (PPM) is new technology developed by Arbitron that can measure audiences of television, cable and radio broadcasts, as well as satellite and Internet broadcasts. The PPM technology has been selected as a media measurement tool in a number of countries. In addition, tests of the PPM have been conducted in more than 15 countries, and commercial license agreements have been signed with more than 30 countries.
“We believe that the PPM technology provides several advantages over our current audience measurement methods, and there are big expectations in the market about the results of this test,” said Luís Queirós the president of Marktest Group. “The PPM technology automatically detects a person’s exposure to TV and radio and does not require any button pushing by survey panelists. This passive measurement should give us more complete data on daily media use.
“The PPM also moves audience measurement from solely in-home measurement to a more general audience. This means that audiences of sports and other broadcasts that are watched in public places, such as cafés and restaurants, will be measured for the first time.”
In addition to testing the technology, Mediamonitor will use the software developed by Markdata, another subsidiary of Marktest Group, to analyze the PPM audience data. Markdata software is used for buying and selling media throughout Europe, Central and South America, the United Kingdom and South Africa.
“The Marktest Group, through its operating companies Mediamonitor and Markdata, has long been a leader in developing and adopting new solutions that keep pace with rapid changes in media technology and meet the needs of broadcasters and advertisers,” said Jay Guyther, senior vice president, International PPM Marketing, Arbitron. “We look forward to working with Marktest to establish the Portable People Meter as the audience measurement method of choice for Portugal’s dynamic media marketplace.”
About Marktest Group
Founded and led by Luís Queirós since 1980, Marktest Group is
the leading Portuguese market research company. Marktest concentrates on audience
studies, analysis, planning and control of advertising investment businesses
and development of the respective software.
Markdata, the Group’s company devoted to software development, has established partnerships with market research firms around the world, including IBOPE, Médiamétrie Kantar and GFK.
About the Portable People Meter
Arbitron’s Portable People Meter (PPM) system uses a small, cellular-phone-sized
audience measurement device to track radio listening as well as broadcast,
cable and satellite television viewing. The PPM is carried throughout the day
by survey participants, tracking the television programs they watch and the
radio stations they listen to by detecting inaudible codes embedded by broadcasters.
At the end of the day, the meter is placed in a docking station that extracts
the channel codes and sends the audience data to a central computer.
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. The Company is
developing the Portable People Meter, a new technology for radio, television
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 850 full-time employees; its executive offices are located in New York City.
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