• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 15, 2009

In one of the biggest Internet radio deals of the last year, Triton Media has acquired Ando Media. With this acquisition, Triton augments its own digital services, which include streaming, text messaging and online video, with Ando's growing capabilities in online radio measurement and advertising management.

Triton has played a prominent role in the wave of consolidation sweeping the online radio business. Last month, it acquired Enticent, a loyalty marketer, and merged it with an existing Triton division, Mass2One Media, to form a new unit called Triton Loyalty.

Enticent's flagship application, StickyFish, is a points-based loyalty program with multiple databases collecting data from surveys, music testing, contests and flash-based gaming. Another Enticent property, FanClub, offers many of the same loyalty-building services -- including surveys, music testing, contests, email marketing -- without the points-based accounting system.

Triton's acquisition of Ando comes just a month after Ando merged with Spacial Audio, which handles automation and ad insertion for streaming audio for mostly online-only broadcasters. Moreover, Ando just announced its intention to gain accreditation from the Media Rating Council for its Webcast Metrics.

Ando claims it already handles measurement of Internet radio for over 6,500 clients through Webcast Metrics, using a combination of server- and client-side data, with additional capabilities like impression reporting for royalty purposes. As noted, it also provides services like inserting audio, video and display ads in both streaming media and downloaded content like podcasts -- making it a distribution platform as well as a measurement specialist.

Pure-play online radio sites and traditional broadcasters alike are hoping for big growth in digital ad revenues as the economy begins to recover. So far, digital ad revenue has remained a small part of total revenues.

According to ZenithOptimedia, Internet radio will attract about $288 million of ad spending in 2009 -- or just 2% of radio's total projected revenues this year.