• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 4, 2014

The Media Rating Council has granted Triton Digital accreditation for Webcast Metrics Local, a service within Webcast Metrics that measures local streaming audio listening, the company announced Tuesday.

The newly accredited local streaming audio measurement service promises to make digital radio more directly comparable with traditional radio.
 
Triton’s Webcast Metrics Local service, which launched two years ago, is available to all providers of streaming audio; publishers who sign up for Webcast Metrics Local must undergo a separate audience of their user-declared geographic and demographic listener data. Audience measurement is provided in terms of average quarter hour, AQH rating, Cume, and Cume rating, consistent with the current presentation of broadcast radio ratings.
 
By putting streaming audio on the same footing as broadcast radio, Webcast Metrics Local allows comparison of local audiences across the digital-broadcast divide -- a key step for digital radio as it seeks to attract local ad dollars.

Pandora is already using the new product in ad sales pitches, according to Triton.
 
Kevin Gallagher, executive vice president of local marketplaces at Starcom, stated: “This accreditation provides a much-needed apples-to-apples comparison that enables better buying decisions.”
 
A recent report from Borrell Associates and the Radio Advertising Bureau stated that revenues from radio broadcasters’ local online advertising increased 13% in 2013 to $426 million. They are poised to jump 22% to $520 million in 2014.
 
More players are piling into the digital radio space, issuing a challenge to Pandora, as well traditional broadcast radio. These include Apple’s iTunes Radio, launched in September of last year, and a new ad-supported mobile music service from Spotify .