 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media market (research) |
| Founded | Washington, D.C. (1949) |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Sean Creamer, CEO |
| Products | Ratings data |
| Revenue |  US$422.31 million(FY 2010)[1] |
| US$85.11 million (FY 2010)[1] | |
| US$53.29 million (FY 2010)[1] | |
| Total assets | US$238.96 million (FY 2010)[1] |
| Total equity | US$126.81 million (FY 2010)[1] |
| Owner | The Nielsen Company |
Number of employees | 1,625 (Dec 2011)[1] |
| Website | www.nielsen.com/audio |
Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with Los Angeles–based Coffin, Cooper, and Clay in the early 1950s.[2] The company's initial business was the collection of broadcast television ratings.
The company changed its name to Arbitron in the mid‑1960s, the namesake of the Arbitron System, a centralized statistical computer with leased lines to viewers' homes to monitor their activity. Deployed in New York City, it gave instant ratings data on what people were watching. A reporting board lit up to indicate which homes were listening to which broadcasts.[3] For years, Arbitron was a part of Control Data Corporation (CDC) and in 1992, it became a part of Ceridian Corporation before the company was split in 2001. The then-current Arbitron was formed from the renaming of the old Ceridian Corporation while the spin-off firm took the Ceridian Corporation name and acted as accounting successor.[4]
On December 18, 2012, The Nielsen Company announced that it would acquire Arbitron, its only competitor, for US$1.26 billion.[5][6] The acquisition closed on September 30, 2013, and the company was re-branded as Nielsen Audio. As a condition of the deal to allow a monopoly, Nielsen must license its ratings data and technology to a third party for eight years.[7]
- ^ a b c d e f "Arbitron, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Feb 24, 2012" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 13, 2013.
- ^ Richter, William A. (2006). Radio: A Complete Guide to the Industry, Volume 4 of Media industries. Peter Lang. p. 84. ISBN 9780820476339.
- ^ Beville, Hugh Malcolm (1988). Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, and Cable. Psychology Press. p. 68. ISBN 9780805801743.
- ^ "ARBITRON INC (Form Type: 8-K, Filing Date: 03/30/2001)". edgar.secdatabase.com. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
- ^ "Arbitron, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Dec 18, 2012". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 13, 2013.
- ^ "Nielsen to Branch Out With Arbitron". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
- ^ "Nielsen Deal For Arbitron Is Complete". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 October 2013.