Columbia, MD - Jul 18, 2012 - The Media Rating Council (MRC) has accredited the radio average-quarter-hour monthly ratings data produced by the Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings service in five additional markets: Los Angeles, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Baltimore, Riverside-San Bernardino, and San Antonio. Three of the markets - Los Angeles, Baltimore and San Antonio - are being granted MRC accreditation for the first time. Two markets - Riverside-San Bernardino and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater - are regaining accreditation, which had been withdrawn by the MRC in January 2012.

The MRC has also voted to continue accreditation in nine markets: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas City, Milwaukee-Racine, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, Phoenix and St. Louis. In total, 14 markets can 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 34 PPM markets, and therefore PPM data in those markets continue to be unaccredited.

"We are pleased the MRC has recognized the progress we have made; at the same time we understand there is still work to be done," said Gregg Lindner, executive vice president, Service Innovation and Chief Research Officer, Arbitron Inc. "We will continue our efforts to maintain the MRC double checkmarks in our currently accredited PPM markets and to achieve service-wide accreditation for all PPM markets."