Carat USA Commits To Arbitron Portable People Meter System for Future Radio Planning and Buying.

NEW YORK -- Multi-Year Data Services Contract Includes Provision for Use of PPM-Based Radio Estimates Pending Arbitron Deployment of Electronic Audience Measurement Service

Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) announced today that Carat Americas, part of the one of the world's leading market services companies, has signed a commitment to use radio audience estimates based on the Portable People Meter (PPM(SM)) when Arbitron deploys its state-of-the-art audience measurement service.

In announcing its signing of the agreement, Rob Frydlewicz, vice president, Research Director, Carat Insight said: "In today's exceedingly complex media environment the PPM is seen by Carat as a welcome advance in the measurement of radio listening."

The agreement is part of the agency's renewal of a multi-year Arbitron data and software services contract and covers the US-based radio planning and buying activities of Carat. In the United States, Carat places radio spot advertising for leading advertisers, including Procter & Gamble, Hyundai Motors and CBS Television.

With this agreement, Carat has added a financial commitment to its vocal support of the PPM and the importance of electronic measurement for the radio industry.

"It is particularly gratifying to have Carat demonstrate its commitment to the Portable People Meter in such clear terms," said Pierre Bouvard, president, Sales and Marketing, Arbitron Inc. "As we get closer to a decision regarding the deployment of the PPM in the U.S. media marketplace, the support of Carat and other companies that use radio to deliver advertising messages makes a clear statement to the industry."

This agreement with Carat does not commit Arbitron to a specific timetable for deployment of the Portable People Meter system. Arbitron has not yet made a decision regarding when and for which markets it will deploy the Portable People Meter system to measure local market radio audiences.

Arbitron is evaluating two approaches for the commercialization of the Portable People Meter system. Arbitron granted Nielsen Media Research an option to join in the potential commercial deployment of the Portable People Meter for audience measurement in the United States. In the event that Nielsen Media Research exercises the option, the Arbitron and Nielsen would form a joint venture to commercially deploy and operate the Portable People Meter system for the collection and measurement of listening and viewing audience data in local markets for broadcast and cable television as well as for radio.

In the event that Nielsen Media Research chooses not to exercise its option to form a joint venture with Arbitron to use the PPM technology for radio and television audience measurement, Arbitron intends to offer a PPM service for audience measurement to the radio industry.

About Carat

Carat has evolved from a European media planning and buying network into the world's largest independent media communications agency network. Carat is part of the Aegis Group-a leading marketing services company listed on the London Stock Exchange and employing over 7,000 staff in over 60 countries.

Carat Americas is one of the leading media services companies in the industry with almost $6 billion in media billings in the United States alone. Carat provides a full range of services, including media research; communications planning; media buying; interactive; business to business; multicultural media; direct response; speaker placement; event management; market mix modeling; corporate trade; experiential; sports and events sponsorship; and out-of-home, and works with many of the best known and leading marketers in the world. For more information, please visit the company's Website, www.carat.com.

About Arbitron

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. The Company has also developed the Portable People Meter (PPM), a new technology for media and marketing research.

Arbitron's marketing and business units are supported by its research and technology organization, located in Columbia, Maryland. Arbitron has approximately 1,700 employees; its executive offices are located in New York City.

Through its Scarborough Research joint venture with VNU, Inc., Arbitron also provides media and marketing research services to the broadcast television, magazine, newspaper and online industries.

PPM(SM) is a service mark of Arbitron Inc.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements regarding Arbitron in this document that are not historical in nature, particularly those that utilize terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "believes" or "plans," or comparable terminology, are forward-looking statements based on current expectations about future events, which Arbitron has derived from information currently available to it. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our results to be materially different from results implied in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include whether we will be able to:

--renew all or part of contracts with large customers as they expire;

--successfully execute our business strategies, including implementation of our Portable People Meter services;

--effectively manage the impact of consolidation in the radio and advertising agency industries;

--keep up with rapidly changing technological needs of our customer base, including creating new proprietary software systems and new customer products and services that meet these needs in a timely manner;

--successfully manage the impact on our business of any economic downturn generally and in the advertising market in particular; and

--successfully manage the impact on costs of data collection due to privacy concerns and/or government regulations.

Additional important factors known to Arbitron that could cause forward-looking statements to turn out to be incorrect are identified and discussed from time to time in Arbitron's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in particular the risk factors discussed under the caption "ITEM 1. BUSINESS - Business Risks" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The forward-looking statements contained in this document speak only as of the date hereof, and Arbitron undertakes no obligation to correct or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.