• by Erik Sass , July 11, 2007

Katz Media Group has acquired Net Radio Sales, the company announced Tuesday, expanding its capabilities in streaming audio ad sales with its biggest digital investment yet.

The acquired company, which will be renamed Katz Net Radio Sales, allows advertisers to deliver ads across a variety of audio and Web-based platforms, including hundreds of station Web sites in its digital network. The company also provides a variety of interactive ads to station Web sites.

Net Radio Sales already offers advertisers a choice of more than 1,000 Internet radio streams, including both broadcast and Internet-only stations, which reach a total 5 million listeners per month.

Mark Gray, president of the Katz Radio Group, said the combination of KRG's scale and Net Radio's emerging platform "will offer our clients and advertisers a powerful new way to aggregate listeners and create integrated advertising campaigns that reach a much broader audience."

The measurement of Internet radio listening will be provided by Ando Media's Webcast Metrics. It will also handle the planning and placement of ads through its Campaign Management System, which allows advertisers to execute both targeted and run-of-network campaigns.

A recent report on Internet radio listening from Arbitron and Edison Media Research, titled "The Infinite Dial 2007: Radio's Digital Platforms," counted a weekly online radio audience of 29 million people in the United States. That represents 11% of the total population.

Plus, 16% of adults ages 18-34 have listened to Internet radio in the last week, and 55% of the listeners are male. Finally, online listeners are more affluent, with members of the cohort 40% more likely than the average population to have a household income that exceeds $100,000 a year.