Thirty million Americans listen to Internet radio stations each week, according to estimates by radio measurement firms Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research. This represents a critical mass, and
advertisers have started to take notice, but--as in other emerging marketing mediums--efforts to attract advertising have been hampered by a lack of audience measurement standards. "If we all settled
on using [one set of numbers] it would be better," one Internet radio executive told
The Wall Street Journal. As in the offline radio world, Arbitron is supposed to provide neutral audience
ratings for the industry, but a growing number of Internet radio stations, including such heavyweights as CBS Corp. and Cox Radio Inc., endorse ratings from an upstart called Ando Media LLC. Why are
there two different ratings systems? The short answer is two different methodologies. Arbitron uses a panel to monitor actual human interaction with Internet radio, while Ando Media uses server
logs to measure how many people tune into a given station. Some say the latter method is more accurate in terms of numbers, but it provides no demographic data. Reliable ratings are what make the ad
business go round; sooner or later stations will have to agree to use one system if they want to grow their advertising revenues. Internet radio commands similar rates to terrestrial radio, but
revenues this year are only expected to be $15 million, compared to the $20 billion-plus radio advertising market.
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