Growth and MRC Approvals Boost Arbitron

US ratings giant Arbitron has reported second quarter revenue up 9.1% to $104.4m, with a 31.4% increase in net income to $10.0m. Separately, the Media Rating Council (MRC) has accredited its ratings service in five additional markets.

The revenue hike followed increases in demand for the firm's cross-platform and mobile services, as well as contracted price increases for its Portable People Meter (PPM) service.

Costs and expenses for the quarter, which ended June 30th, increased by 5.8% to $93.8m in 2012, while EBITDA was $23.6m, an increase of 19.7% compared with $19.7m for Q2 2011.

For the six months ended June 30, net income was up 16.5% to $27.8m compared with $23.8m in 2011. Revenue was $210.8m, an increase of 7.2% compared $196.6m in 2011, costs and expenses increased by 5.3% to $169.0m and EBITDA climbed 12.4% to $60.2m.

President and CEO Bill Kerr (pictured) comments: 'Throughout the second quarter, we remained focused on our longstanding priorities: pursuing opportunities for revenue growth while enhancing the value and utility of our core services. Even as we invested in our core services and in growth initiatives, we continued to deliver margin growth and were able to return capital to our shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases.'

For the full year 2012, Arbitron expects revenue to increase between 5% and 7% over its 2011 revenue of $422.3m.


The company has also announced that the MRC has accredited its radio average-quarter-hour monthly ratings in 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for the first time, while Riverside-San Bernardino and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater are regaining accreditation withdrawn in January.

In total, fourteen markets can now display the MRC double checkmark logo, but the MRC voted to not grant accreditation in the remaining 34 PPM markets, and therefore PPM data in those markets continues to be unaccredited.

Gregg Lindner, Arbitron's Service Innovation and Chief Research Officer, says the firm is pleased the MRC has recognized the progress made, but understands there is still work to be done.

Web sites: www.arbitron.com and www.mediaratingcouncil.org .