Full Year Revenue Up 4.4% at Arbitron

US ratings giant Arbitron has reported a 4.4% rise in full-year 2009 revenue to $385.0m (2008: $368.8m), while net income increased 13.4% to $42.2m (2008: $37.2m).

For the fourth quarter of 2009, revenue increased 8.5% to $101.5m. Net income was $12.6m - including a one-off tax benefit of $3.7m - compared with $3.4m in the same period of 2008.

Costs and expenses for Q4 increased by 0.9% from $94.5m in 2008 to $95.3m in 2009, due partly to planned expenditures for the commercialization of the firm's Portable People Meter (PPM), and planned sample quality improvement initiatives such as the further introduction of cell-phone-only household sampling.

Costs and expenses for full-year 2009 increased by 5.7% to $330.1m from $312.4m in 2008.

The PPM, which has commercialized in 33 markets to date, has faced numerous criticisms from certain radio broadcasters and state officials that claim the device under-represents some ethnic and age groups.

Arbitron is also involved in a legal dispute with Spanish Broadcasting System regarding encoding its broadcast signals for the PPM.

For the full year 2010, Arbitron forecasts a modest increase in revenue of between 2% and 6%, with the expectation of legal and regulatory costs. This guidance also includes a projected figure of c.$10m in lost revenue, due to the loss of Cumulus and Clear Channel contracts to Nielsen; as well as $15m which the firm plans to invest for cell-phone-only household sampling in its PPM and diary market.

President & CEO William Kerr said that the firm's priorities for 2010 are straightforward: 'We will work to complete the planned commercialization of our PPM ratings service while continuing our programs designed to improve key sample quality metrics, our efforts toward Media Rating Council accreditation, and our work toward resolving responsibly the remaining concerns of certain customers and governmental entities.'

Kerr added that Arbitron would be leveraging the PPM technology and panel to further explore new lines of business, such as its away-from-home TV service and its cross-platform measurement service.

In addition, he said that he would be working to evolve a long-term management structure, 'capable of driving and supporting Arbitron's growth and expansion'.

Shares in the company fell 10% to $22.77 this morning; their sharpest decline in more than 14 months.

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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