Arbitron Inc. (NYSE:ARB) and The Nielsen Company announced today that
the two companies have terminated the development of “Project
Apollo,” the proposed single-source, national
research service. The two companies had been working on the pilot
project since early in 2005. The announcement was made by Susan D.
Whiting, executive vice president of The Nielsen Company, and by Steve
Morris, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Arbitron Inc.
“Despite a promising level of interest, we did
not secure sufficient client commitments to make Project Apollo a
sustainable venture for our two companies,”
Arbitron and Nielsen said in a joint statement.
“We are grateful to the companies, consultants
and to the marketing and advertising agency executives of the seven
Project Apollo Steering Committee members who helped us explore the
cutting edge of media and marketing research,”
the statement continued.
Said Steve Morris: “Everyone recognized from
the outset what an ambitious effort we were undertaking: harness the
best in modern research technology and methodology to see if we could
finally fulfill the promise of a single-source media and marketing
research service.”
Said Susan Whiting: “We have learned a great
deal from ‘Project Apollo,’ and
I am confident that this work will enable us to provide even higher
levels of quality service to our clients."
About ‘Project
Apollo’
“Project Apollo”
was designed to be a single-source, national market research service
based on Nielsen´s Homescan technology for measuring consumer purchase
behavior, combined with Arbitron’s Portable
People MeterTM system, measuring
electronic media exposure . In January 2006, The Nielsen Company and
Arbitron Inc. completed the deployment of a national pilot panel of more
than 11,000 persons in 5,000 households. The pilot panel was intended to
show advertisers how ‘Project Apollo’
might enable a better understanding of the link between consumer
exposure to advertising in multiple media and their shopping/purchase
behavior.
Seven advertisers signed on as members of the “Project
Apollo” Steering Committee. The Committee
worked with Arbitron and Nielsen to evaluate the utility of multi-media
and purchase information from a common sample of consumers.
Individuals within the sample were given incentives to voluntarily carry
Arbitron’s Portable People MeterTM,
a small, pager-sized device that collects the person’s
exposure to electronic media sources: broadcast television networks,
cable networks, and network radio as well as audio-based commercials
broadcast on these platforms. Consumer exposure to other media such as
newspapers, magazines and circulars were collected through additional
survey instruments.
Information on consumer preference and purchases for a wide range of
services and products were collected from panelists, via ACNielsen’s
Homescan technology, which tracks packaged goods purchases. Data were
then collected in aggregate to provide a more complete understanding of
participants’ media interactions and their
resulting shopping and purchase behavior.
About The Nielsen Company
The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with
leading market positions in marketing information (ACNielsen), media
information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings
and BuzzMetrics), mobile measurement, trade shows and business
publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The
privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with
headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more
information, please visit www.nielsen.com.
About Arbitron
Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is a media and marketing research firm serving
radio broadcasters, cable companies, advertisers, advertising agencies
and outdoor advertising companies in the United States. 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 developed the Portable People Meter, a new technology for
media and marketing research.
Through its Scarborough Research joint venture with The Nielsen Company,
Arbitron also provides media and marketing research services to the
broadcast television, cable, newspaper and online industries.
Arbitron’s marketing and business units are
supported by a research and technology organization located in Columbia,
Maryland. Its executive offices are located in New York City.
Portable People MeterTM and PPMTM
are marks of Arbitron Inc.
Note from Arbitron Inc. Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
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 we have derived from
information currently available to us. 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, in no
particular order, whether we will be able to:
successfully implement the rollout of our Portable People MeterTM
service;
successfully design, recruit, and maintain PPM panels that
appropriately balance research quality, panel size and operational
cost;
successfully obtain and/or maintain Media Rating Council
accreditation for our audience measurement services;
renew contracts with large customers as they expire;
successfully execute our business strategies, including entering
into potential acquisition joint-venture, or other material
third-party agreements;
effectively manage the impact, if any, of any further ownership
shifts in the radio and advertising agency industries;
respond to 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
lower respondent cooperation in surveys, privacy concerns, consumer
trends, technology changes and/or government regulations.
successfully develop and implement technology solutions to measure
multi-media and advertising in an increasingly competitive environment.
Additional important factors that could cause actual events or our
actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements
are identified and discussed from time to time in our filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including, in particular, the risk
factors discussed under the caption “ITEM 1A.
RISK FACTORS” in our Annual Report on Form
10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006.
The forward-looking statements contained in this document speak only
as of the date hereof and should not be relied upon as representing our
estimates as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update
forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically
disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change.
Arbitron Inc.
Thom Mocarsky, 410-312-8239
thom.mocarsky@arbitron.com
or
The
Nielsen Company
Jack Loftus, 646-654-8360
Jack.Loftus@Nielsen.com