When it comes to Internet radio measurement, there are two players in the game. One – Measurecast – is a relative newcomer and the other – Arbitron Webcast Services- is the young offspring of the
company that has been measuring terrestrial radio for nearly 50 years.
Both companies rank Internet radio stations according to aggregate tuning hours, but their methods of deriving the
figures differ significantly. MediaPost spoke with both to find out what issues advertisers and agencies should examine before deciding which one to use.
Aggregate tuning hours are derived
from log files, the record of URL requests made by listeners every time they log onto an Internet radio station. "Every time a listener requests a stream, it sends the request to the server, which
writes a record of the request," says Bill Piwonka, VP of marketing for Measurecast.
One difference between Measurecast and Arbitron is that Measurecast has developed its own system for
gathering log files. "We installed software on our server that records requests and sends them into our database," Piwonka says. Arbitron gets its data from streaming media companies like Akamai and
Real Broadcast Networks, who outsource it.
Which method is more accurate? Piwonka says, "We have greater accuracy than a log file method," but Bill Rose, VP and general manager of Arbitron
Webcast Services, says the company gets information every day and that it's "a complete measurement of tuning activity."
Calling the data complete, though, is inaccurate, according to Andy
Markham, VP of product development for Jupiter Media Metrix. "It's a factor of how many stations agree to give them the logs," he says. "There's a limitation to the methodology because not all
stations do it." It makes sense for stations to provide the data because they can use the rankings to entice advertisers, but perhaps Internet radio hasn't been around long enough for every station to
participate.
Enough do provide the data, with both companies filing regular reports. But there are differences here, too, with Measurecast filing reports much more frequently. Aside from their
next-day offerings, Measurecast's best-known report is a weekly ranking of the top 25 stations with additional information about listening trends. Meanwhile, Arbitron files monthly ratings, which Rose
compares with the quarterly reports Arbitron files for terrestrial radio.
A sample of the reports is one Arbitron filed in November ranking October's top stations. Virgin Radio was first with
567,800 aggregate tuning hours, followed by KING-FM, Mediamazing, Groove Radio and KNAC.com Pure Rock. A recent Measurecast report for the week of Nov. 12-18 ranks Mediamazing first with 193,781
hours, followed by JazzFM, WQXR, KING-FM and ESPN radio.
While total tuning hours give advertisers a sense of what stations to buy, demographic information is also important. But with total
tuning hours, "you know how many requests come in, but you don't know who they are," Piwonka admits. Measurecast dealt with that problem by building a panel of 50,000 listeners, whose listening data
is used to provide advertisers with demographic reports. Measurecast combines the file reports it derives with the demographic data it gets from its panel. "When you have a significant number of
panelists, you can project the composition of the entire audience, it happens frequently," Piwonka says.
These numbers allow Measurecast to offer ranker reports, which rank the top stations
for different demographic audiences.
Arbitron also creates Webcast audience profiles on a project basis. The profiles are based on online surveys Arbitron conducts. Recently, it has done
surveys for Major League Baseball and MTV/VH1.
But Markham criticizes Arbitron's audience profiles, saying they aren't coupled with log file data, so "there's no link between the two."
Based on the above, Measurecast's services may seem slightly more attractive than Arbitron's, but there’s something to be said for name recognition. As one analyst said, he prefers Arbitron because
"it's bigger than Measurecast and more recognized."