Lost Contracts will Cost Arbitron $5m in 2009

Ratings giant Arbitron says it will lose around $5m in 2009 as a result of losing contracts with radio broadcasters Cumulus Media and Clear Channel Radio to Nielsen.

Last month, Arbitron announced a drop in third quarter income to $13.7m, compared with $17.0m for the third quarter of 2008, which it say is largely due to client losses and costs associated with the commercialization of its Portable People Meter (PPM).

In an SEC filing today, the company outlined the cost of lost revenue from the contracts in 2009.

'Nielsen's signing of Cumulus Media and Clear Channel Communications as customers for its radio ratings service in certain small to mid-sized markets was a primary factory in a $4.6m decline in our revenue for the nine months ended September 30 2009,' the firm explained in the filing. 'It is anticipated it will adversely impact our expected revenue by approximately $5m for all of 2009 and $10m per year thereafter.'

Arbitron said that due to the impact of the current economic downturn on anticipated sales of 'discretionary' services and renewals of agreements to provide ratings services, it expects that future annual organic rate of revenue growth from its quantitative diary-based radio ratings service will be slower than historical trends.

Web site: www.arbitron.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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