Fresh Air is an essential manual on marketing radio stations and the radio industry, by Mark Ramsey. Read the Radio's Streaming Nightmare come true
Once upon a time there was a radio station in a large market.
And that station streamed online.
After a ratings book, the station discovered that one listener - one diary - noted listening to their stream, but not the station on-air.
Because of Arbitron's rules which insist that the stream and the station can only be counted together if they are identical down to the very last commercial (which describes virtually no commercial station), this person was counted as a stream listener, but not a station listener.
But see, this listener listened to that stream all day and almost every day.
Now granted, if that stream didn't exist we don't know for sure all that listening would have gone to this station, but surely some of it would have. And what if all of it did?
In fact, if that one diary of listening were added to the station's audience pile, it would have been worth an estimated .2 share among persons 25-54.
And if that doesn't sound like much, consider this:
The station would have leaped five rank positions.
I don't need to spell out the revenue consequences.
Is this happening to you?
Very likely.
As I have said before, this unhappy story is only going to get more unhappy if broadcasters and advertisers don't endeavor to resolve the conflict with AFTRA that is necessitating commercial substitution in the first place.
Either broadcasters solve this problem, or the very real ratings penalty combined with rising bandwidth and streaming costs will conspire to shut down radio station streams all across the land.
And if listeners can't get what they want from you wherever they want it, they'll simply go someplace else.
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The station would have jumped five rank positions...only if the other five stations couldn't count their own web listening with their broadcast listening.
Posted by: Jerome | April 06, 2007 at 07:27 PM
Alternatively stations could ignore Arbitron - spend some time understanding the characteristics of their streaming listener and sell that to advertisers.
Thats what Rob Curley did in Naples FL when he headed the internet section of a local paper. They put ton's of content not typically associated with papers - developed audience characteristis and then when after advertisers directly.
What advertisers did they target. Why Radio and TV advertisers. Supposedly the conversions were worth millions to the paper.
It's dollars not ratings that matter.
Posted by: Peter Childs | April 08, 2007 at 02:39 PM
Peter, I technically agree with you but the scope of that mindset transition is so vast I'm skeptical that radio can make it happen in any reasonable timeframe.
Jerome, you are quite incorrect. Some stations don't stream. Some promote their stream more effectively than others. Some formats are more stream-friendly than others. But ALL broadcasters care about ratings.
Posted by: Mark Ramsey | April 09, 2007 at 09:34 AM