MUMBAI: Arbitron Inc. today announced that subsidiaries of Entercom Communications Corp., one of the five largest radio groups in the United States, have signed multi-year, multi-market contracts for Arbitron's Portable People Meterâ„? (PPMâ„?) and Diary radio ratings extending their use of Arbitron's services in all of their radio markets.

"Arbitron looks forward to continuing our long and productive relationship with Entercom," said Carol Hanley, Executive Vice President, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Arbitron Inc. "Arbitron is proud to provide the quality PPM and Diary audience measurement data that helps Entercom facilitate its buy-sell process across all of their radio markets and helps grow its business."

The Arbitron Portable People Meter is a portable device that follows a consumer's exposure to media and entertainment by passively capturing an inaudible code embedded in the audio content of broadcast, cable and satellite television; terrestrial, satellite and online radio; as well as cinema advertising and many types of place-based digital media. The PPM service is currently commercialized in 33 markets nationwide, and is scheduled to be commercialized in 48 markets by the end of 2010.

For more than 40 years, the Arbitron diary has measured radio, tracking audiences of more than 13,000 stations broadcasting in the United States as well as from Canada and Mexico. The Arbitron Diary methodology has evolved significantly over the past four decades, including improvements to sampling cell phone households and improving recruitment of hard to reach young and ethnic demographics.