New York - Apr 15, 2002 – Arbitron released an initial round of ratings results from the second phase of the Portable People Meter (PPM) U.S. market trial in Philadelphia.

The Portable People Meter continues to report higher average quarter-hour audiences on a 24-hour day, total-week basis for the combined electronic media stations and networks that encoded full time. The February 2002 PPM results show increased average quarter-hour audiences for broadcast and cable TV, and somewhat higher average quarter-hour audiences for radio (see summary findings below).

The latest Portable People Meter findings from panel of 1,500 consumers in the Philadelphia radio and TV market confirm the pattern reported in the previous three ratings comparisons from last year's trial in Wilmington, DE. These findings continue to suggest that Arbitron's new ratings technology is tracking media exposure that is not included in today's generation of television and radio ratings methods.

With the release of these ratings results Arbitron announced that it would expand its ongoing evaluation of the audience estimates produced by the PPM in Philadelphia.

Arbitron will continue its efforts to educate and inform the broadcast industry about the PPM technology through meetings, webcasts and Web-based interactive presentations. The industry will also receive direct access to PPM data through a new software application so Arbitron's customers may evaluate the PPM ratings using their own resources and expertise.

Nielsen Media Research, which has an option to join Arbitron in the commercial deployment of the PPM in the U.S., will participate in this expanded evaluation of the PPM results and will assist Arbitron in its analysis of the differences between the PPM trial results and Nielsen’s reported audience measurement data in Philadelphia.

To help understand the differences reported by the PPM compared to the Nielsen meter/diary estimates and Arbitron radio diary estimates, the evaluations will include an examination of: