Regal CineMedia to Participate In Arbitron Trial of Portable People Meter Rating Service in Houston

Regal CineMedia to Participate In Arbitron Trial of Portable People Meter Rating Service in Houston

Pre-Show Entertainment and Commercial Content to be Encoded in Test of PPM's Capabilities in a Movie-Going Environment

NEW YORK, March 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Regal CineMedia, the media subsidiary of Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE:REG), will participate with Arbitron Inc. (NYSE:ARB) in a planned demonstration of its Portable People Meter (PPM(SM)) ratings service in Houston, beginning mid-2005.

Regal CineMedia will use Arbitron-supplied PPM encoders to embed unique identification codes in The 2wenty, an original short-form, entertainment pre- feature program, which includes high-quality national advertising. The 2wenty is delivered by satellite to approximately 5,300 screens in 450 Regal Cinemas, United Artists and Edwards Theatres in 79 top markets.

In Houston, The 2wenty is available on 46 screens in two theatres. When an Arbitron PPM Houston survey participant watches The 2wenty in any of those movie auditoriums, the Portable People Meter will detect the Arbitron-embedded codes and report that the individual has been exposed to the Regal CineMedia in-theatre programming.

"We are participating in the Houston trial in order evaluate the capabilities of the PPM system in our theatres and auditoriums," said Doug Pulick, senior vice president, research, Regal CineMedia Corporation. "We see the PPM as a potential breakthrough for measuring and monitoring audiences holistically in terms of their media consumption both inside and outside the home. The PPM could also be a potential commercial verification system used to assure advertisers that their cinema advertising ran as contracted in a representative sample of theatres."

"The PPM system could measure the cinema audience with the same sample of consumers and the same methodology as radio, broadcast television and cable," said Pierre Bouvard, president, Portable People Meters, Arbitron Inc. "That means cinema advertising could be integrated into the media plan using common audience metrics. At the same time, radio, broadcast TV and cable would have a direct measure of their ability to fill the seats at the local multiplex."

About the Portable People Meter

The Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM) system uses a passive audience measurement device -- about the size of a small cell phone -- to track consumer exposure to media and entertainment, including broadcast, cable and satellite television; terrestrial, satellite and online radio as well as cinema advertising and many types of place-based electronic media. Carried throughout the day by randomly selected survey participants, the PPM device can track when and where they watch television, listen to radio as well as how they interact with other forms of media and entertainment.

The PPM detects inaudible codes embedded in the audio portion of media and entertainment content delivered by broadcasters, content providers and distributors. At the end of the day, the meter is placed in a docking station that extracts the codes and sends them to a central computer. The PPM is equipped with a motion sensor, a patented quality control feature unique to the system, which allows Arbitron to confirm the compliance of the PPM survey participants every day.

About Regal CineMedia

Regal CineMedia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Regal Entertainment Group focusing on the expansion and development of advertising and new uses for Regal's theatre assets, while at the same time enhancing the movie-going experience. Regal CineMedia operates other divisions that focus on meetings and special productions in a theatre environment, including the presentation of entertainment, educational and sports events, as well as the sale of group tickets and gift certificates.

Additional information is available on the Company's web site at http://www.regmovies.com/ or http://www.regalcinemedia.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.

Source: Arbitron Inc.

CONTACT: Thom Mocarsky of Arbitron Inc., +1-212-887-1314, thom.mocarsky@arbitron.com; or Yin Chang, 212-896-1228, ychang@kcsa.com, or Todd Fromer, +1-212-896-1215, tfromer@kcsa.com, both of KCSA Worldwide; or Lauren LeffRegal of CineMedia +1-212-931-8107, lauren.leff@regalcinemedia.com

Web site: http://www.regalcinemedia.com/ http://www.regmovies.com/

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