| Overview: |
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. Arbitron Internet Broadcast Services measures the audiences of audio and video content on the Internet, commonly known as webcasts. 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 825 full-time employees; its executive offices are located in New York City.
Through its Scarborough Research joint venture with SRDS, Inc., a subsidiary of VNU, Inc., Arbitron also provides media and marketing research services to the broadcast television, magazine, newspaper, outdoor and online industries.
Arbitron also owns Continental Research, located in London. Continental conducts market research in the media, advertising, financial and telecommunications arenas in the UK and Europe. Continental is well versed in telephone, diary and in-person focus groups and personal interviews. It conducts surveys using both business and consumer samples. The company maintains a panel of UK consumers to support its offering in its four major business areas (media, financial, IT/telecommunications and advertising) and also offers direct research services to outside market research agencies. |
| Competitive Niche: |
Arbitron has harnessed the power of our Scarborough consumer surveys and backed that leading local market consumer resource with experienced people and state-of-the-art software applications. This portion of the Arbitron Web site is devoted exclusively to the needs of the Out-of-Home industry. |