Arbitron starts 2011 with revenue and profits increase

Net income jumped 18.2% to $16.2m from $13.7m last year.

Arbitron said that commercialisation of 15 new Portable People Meter (PPM) markets in the second half of 2010 helped boost the revenue figure.

Costs were up by 1.5% to $71.8m, which the firm also attributed to the new PPM markets, but the figure was “partially offset” by the elimination of costs linked to outgoing diary-based ratings services.

President and CEO Bill Kerr (pictured) said: “For the balance of 2011, we still expect revenue to grow faster than costs. Because we have fully commercialised the PPM service in 48 markets, we anticipate margin expansion as our costs stabilise and as we continue to benefit from the phase in of pricing for our PPM service.”