Arbitron Inc, a media and marketing research firm, on Monday launched its fully-owned subsidiary Arbitron India in Kochi. The company’s full-fledged campus is located at Thejomaya building in Info Park at Kakkanad.
Shilen Suguanan, managing director, said the Kochi campus would recruit 400 people by 2010 and this would be doubled by 2012. The company has 150 employees at the newly built campus.
Steve Morris, chairman and CEO of Arbitron Inc, said the Kochi centre is set up as a facility for software engineering, R&D and product development to support Arbitron's vision to serve the media and market research industry across the world.
Talking to reporters here, he said all the industries and businesses linked with the media would be the most hit as the advertising pool of money was shrinking across the globe. During last three months, there was a 15 per cent drop in media expenditure of the corporate world of the US. The greater impact would be on TV and the print media while radio will be least affected. The US has an annual radio business to the tune of $18 billion through 15,000 radio stations.
The drop in advertising will be in a range of 20-25 per cent in the current year, he added.