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 BY
KURT HANSON
Last week, Arbitron released its InfoStream webcast ratings
report for the month of February (see RAIN story here),
with the results ranked in  descending
order of a new statistic called "Aggregate Tuning Hours (ATH)"
(see table here).
In that report, the leading webcast was NetRadio's
"Hits" channel with 227,600 Aggregate Tuning Hours, followed
by NetRadio's "80s Hits" channel, and London's
Virgin Radio.
 The
top radio station Web simulcasts were WJZW/Washington
DC, ABC Radio's "Tom
Joyner Morning Show," and WPLJ/New
 York
City (in positions #7-9). And the top small-market webcast
was KCDU/Monterey ("CD93")
(in position #11 with 79,800 Aggregate Tuning Hours).
Although Arbitron's press release characterized their new ATH
statistic as "a commonly used metric in the streaming media
space," several RAIN readers familiar with the streaming
media space have written in to dispute that claim, saying they haven't
heard that metric used regularly.
However, if you've been a RAIN reader for the past few months,
you're probably familiar with the concept -- because
we've been calculating it every
time Arbitron released enough data on a station for us to do so!
As you can see, for example, in the March 24, 2000 issue of
RAIN -- see the second  news
story here
-- the only stations for which one could previously calculate ATH
were those that appeared on both Arbitron's top-25 Monthly
Cume list and their top-25 Time Spent Tuning list for the same
month, which in March's release of December data was only two
stations.
We calculated ATH (which we called "Hours of Listening
Per Month") as a necessary mathemetical step toward figuring
out stations' actual AQH audience sizes. (The math was simple --
Monthly Cume times Time Spent Tuning equals ATH. Then ATH divided
by the number of hours in the month equals AQH.)
Just a few moments ago, a RAIN reader with perfect
timing wrote in:
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"I
may be a little rusty, but..."
|
Kurt, I may
be a little rusty, but in converting ATH into AQH numbers, why
are you dividing the ATH by the number of hours instead of the number
of quarter hours?
|
...
Good question, Ed. It's because I'm using a misnomer.
In
truth, I'm using "Average Quarter Hour" as a convoluted
way of saying "Average Persons."
That's a holdover from the days when radio programs
like "The Chase & Sanborn Kate Smith Show" were
15 minutes long and ratings were tabulated by hand. Anyone
who
listened to the show for at least five minutes was counted
as a listener to the entire show.
Arbitron still uses that technique for producing its broadcast
ratings. If you write down in a diary that you listened to
Z-100 from 8:07 to 8:12 (five minutes), Z-100 gets credit
for the full quarter-hour, but if you write down that you
listened from 8:11 to 8:19 (eight minutes), Z-100 gets no
credit at all, because your listening spanned two different
quarter-hours.
(The thinking back when diaries were tabulated by hand:
"Didn't listen to Kate Smith for five minutes. Didn't
listen to Charlie McCarthy for five minutes. Sorry.")
I am actually trying to calculate Average Persons, so
if ATH is expressed in hours, I need to divide it by the number
of hours in a month. On the other hand, if it was expressed
in quarter-hours*, I'd need to divide it by the number of
quarter-hours in a month. In either case, I'd end up with
the same answer.
I am using the term "AQH" because that's
the commonly-used term in our industry. In truth, it's interchangable
with "Average Persons" and "at the average
moment."
---------
* Hey, good idea! NetRadio "Hits" got almost a MILLION
quarter-hours of listening in February!
...
|
BY KURT HANSON
Rock stars and music executives testified before the Senate
Judiciary Committee last week
(on June 11th) in a hearing they characterized as an "information-gathering
session" on whether the Federal government should get involved
in the issues being raised by the RIAA-vs.-Napster dispute.
The event was convened by the co-sponsors of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, Senator Orrin G.  Hatch,
(R-Utah) and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Featured guests included
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, Napster interim CEO Hank
Barry, Sony Music Entertainment president of new technology
Fred Ehrlich, MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson, and musician/songwriter
Roger McGuinn of the Byrds
The Los Angeles Times observed, "Most of the
witnesses at [last] Tuesday's hearing stopped short of urging Congress
to write legislation to clarify whether companies such as MP3.com
and Napster Inc. are violating intellectual-property laws when they
allow their users to swap digital versions of songs over the Internet.
"Programs such as Napster and Gnutella, which allow
music fans to download music from the Internet for free,  have
soared in popularity in the past year, prompting charges of piracy
from recording companies and artists. Even those on opposite sides
of the issue, which could shake up the music industry in a way not
seen since the advent of radio, think Congress should stay out of
the fight for now."
Few of the participants called for government intervention,
although Ulrich said, "''I think we're dreaming if you think
we can work this out ourselves.'' He added, ''The differences are
too deep on too many levels.''
"I was surprised that on the question of whether we should
be moving forward on legislation, there was pretty much a consensus,
[and it was] against," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member
of the Judiciary Committee was quoted as saying.
Read the
full L.A. Times articles from last week here
and here.
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|
Arbitron splitting from
Ceridian (7/18)
From Radio Business Report: By year’s end, Arbitron will
be spun off from Ceridian (N:CEN) to go it alone as  a
free-standing company. Arbitron President Stephen Morris will be
CEO of the new, publicly traded Arbitron, which had revenues of
$215M last year. Current Ceridian shareholders will receive shares
of both companies, with the exact split yet to be determined, once
the IRS gives its blessing to the tax-free break-up...
AMFM resets Chicago management
team
From R&R Online: WVAZ
GSM Kirby Kaden segues to Clear Channel's Internet arm to lead the
development of platform-based revenue streams.
Sirius welcomes new Sr. VP/Engineering
 From
R&R Online: Dr. Mircho Davidov will oversee Sirius' engineering
programs, including the implementation of Sirius' terrestrial system
and receiver development. He'll also succeed Sirius co-founder and
Exec. VP/Engineering Robert Briskman, who will retire after Sirius
successfully launches its three satellites. The first satellite
was launched last month, and the other two are scheduled to blast
off in September and October.
Want to follow the story of the five Arbitron InfoStream
webcast ratings reports released to date? These links will take
you to most of RAIN's coverage of the topic:
 "RAIN:
Radio And Interent Newsletter" -- the leading web-based publication
devoted specifically to the subject of Internet radio -- is establishing
a summer internship program and is now accepting applications.
If you or someone you know is looking for an interesting new
opportunity in the exciting dotcom world, this may be just
what you're looking for!
To learn more about RAIN's Summer 2000 internship program,
click here.
Reprinted
from yesterday's issue:
 |
"When you go to a party at someone's house, don't
automatically assume that the drinks are free. Ask, and
ask often."
Buy this fine item from Amazon here.
(RAIN doesn't have an affiliate deal with Amazon
or anything. It's just a great book.)
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