Mark Ramsey Media LLC - sync radio and digital media

Your point about checking with AFTRA is correct. But there is another way and I was blown away when I heard it – I listened to a station online and heard commercials throughout the entire time. I called the GM and found out the station has a sales department directly responsible for selling online advertising…and they are sold out. Now that covers both non-stop streaming and boosting revenue!

What about PPM? Shouldn’t the ppm data be unaffected since it is a matter of encoding a signal and recording exposure to encoded signal?

Greg, your point was mentioned in my discussion with Steve.
Although selling out your stream will be small consolation if it comes at the expense of the mother-ship.
Chance, I don’t know. But since precision is the goal, I would guess that the PPM would be the same story.
The problem is NOT Arbitron’s. It’s ours.

“The problem is NOT Arbitron’s”
Disagree. If Arbitron’s rule stupidly ignores reality (Say a station has one commercial position that doesn’t get streamed: The whole stream gets uncounted?), then its results will be useless to the advertisers. I’d bet that, if pressed, Arbitron can come up with a report that accounts for this.
The folks with the real problem are advertisers stuck with AFTRA-limited spots. As streaming becomes commonplace, this issue will get handled at the agency level.

Your information about Arbitron is on track and timely. We’ve known for some time that Arbitron is seeking to be able to delineate between all of the various forms of distrubtion that radio programming might take now and in the future. And as Steve correctly points out, it makes sense that Advertisers don’t want to pay for ratings that they aren’t buying. Some points though:
A. I do not believe that NOT streaming or proceeding into new digital technologies is even an option for broadcasters. We will need to adapt to the new ratings methods and numbers and – ultimately – stop being slaves to Arbitron.
B. Even the largest streaming numbers are (at this point anyway) an almost insignificant blip relative to most station’s over-the-air AQH and cume. Trust me, I’ve done the math. If you worry about losing, say 50,000 listening hours in Arbitron over the course of a month to your internet stream, forget it. You’ve already lost those hours. If they aren’t listening to you on-line, they’re going to listen to something else anyway. At least if they are listening to your stream or side channel, you have the opportunity to connect with them, serve them and sell their listening attention to advertisers.
B. There’s a ‘double whammy’ involved with not streaming or doing side channels, too: every listening hour that doesn’t go to your brand goes to your competition, whether that be another station’s stream, XM, AOL, or 1000′s of other options. You get smaller; they get bigger. Ouch – death by a thousand paper cuts.
C. It’s all about your brand. If you have a great brand, you have nothing to fear by providing your own competition (better you than someone else). Successful brands have done this throughout marketing history. Need a good radio example? Check out cBS Radio’s KINK-FM in Portland (www.kinkfm102.com). They are all about streaming everything KINK. On their home page, you’ll see links for their LIVE stream, an ACOUSTIC KINK stream, A KINK NEW MUSIC CHANNEL, A KINK LIGHTS OUT channel and a KINK BLUES Channel. They are all sold to sponsors, and all support the KINK brand and programming to their fans. Is KINK worried about losing Arbitron credit to their streaming credits? Well, if they are they’re smart enough to know that what listening isn’t their’s will ultimately end up being someone else’s. I think KINK intends on keeping listeners tuned to them – now and in the future.