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From the Arbitron site: "Arbitron announced today that its September Webcast Ratings measures over an unprecedented 1,000 webcast channels.

"In September, NetRadio, an Internet-only webcaster streamed by Akamai and iBEAM Broadcasting, occupied seven of the top 10 spots. NetRadio's '80s Hits' ranked number one with 248,600 Aggregate Tuning Hours (ATH)—the sum total of all hours that listeners tune to a given channel during a month.

"Claiming the number four spot was heavy metal lifestyle community channel KNAC streamed by Akamai and Enigma Digital with 213,000 ATH. International webcaster Virgin Radio, streamed by Ginger Online, ranked number nine with 191,300 ATH. The top ranked U.S. radio station streaming audio online was WABC-AM's webcast channel, streamed by RealBroadcast Networks, ranked number ten with 188,000 ATH...

"Internet-only Groove Radio, streamed by Enigma Digital and Akamai, had the largest increase in ATH. In fact, the Electronica Web channel nearly doubled its monthly listenership in September with 182,300 from 98,700 ATH in August..."

Arbitron Webcast Ratings Report -- September 2000 (Top 20 Aggregate Tuning Hours -- ATH)

Rank	Channel	Format	Corporate Affiliate	Internet Affiliate	ATH
1	NetRadio- 80s Hits	80s Hits	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	248,600
2	NetRadio- Smooth Jazz	NAC/Smooth Jazz	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	234,300
3	NetRadio- Hits	CHR	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	232,000
4	KNAC.com Pure Rock	AOR	Enigma Digital	Akamai, Enigma Digital	213,000
5	NetRadio- The X	Alternative Rock	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	212,800
6	NetRadio- Rt. 1 Country	Country	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	212,400
7	NetRadio- Quiet Classics	Classical	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	208,500
8	NetRadio- Vintage Rock	Classic Rock	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	198,700
9	Virgin Radio	Hot AC	Scottish Media Group	Ginger Online	191,300
10	WABC-AM	News/Talk	ABC Radio	RealBroadcast Networks	188,000
11	Groove Radio	Electronica	Enigma Digital	Akamai, Enigma Digital	182,300
12	NetRadio- Cafe Jazz	Jazz	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	152,300
13	CFNY-FM	New Rock	Shaw Communications	Activate, GlobalMedia	144,500
14	WPLJ-FM	Hot AC	ABC Radio	RealBroadcast Networks	135,900
15	NetRadio- Lite Hits	Easy Listening	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	124,900
16	KPLU-FM	Jazz	Pacific Lutheran University	Activate	121,500
17	NetRadio- New Age	New Age	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	116,800
18	KPIG-FM	AAA	New Wave Broadcasting LP	Activate, GlobalMedia	113,900
19	Tom Joyner Morning Show	Talk/Personality	ABC Radio Networks	RealBroadcast Networks	109,100
20	NetRadio- 60s Country	Country	NetRadio	Akamai, iBEAM Broadcasting	108,200

You can read the Arbitron piece and see a list of the top 75 rated streams here.

...

... Much like the ratings we saw from Arbitron last month (here), there seems to be a pretty even spread of formats across the top 20, with the notable exceptions of Urban and Oldies. And much like the last Arbitron study, NetRadio streams dominate the chart, much like we've been seeing ABC Radio "own" the MeasureCast ratings. But we can see that MeasureCast's top station, WABC-AM/New York, ranks only 10 with Arbitron. So NetRadio's king, right? Hard to say. Arbitron's "Aggregate Tuning Hours" and MeasureCast's "Total Time Spent Listening" (after adjusting for the fact that Arbitron's study period is a month, MeasureCast's a week) should be nearly the same thing. So, if we were to multiply a station's Total TSL from the MeasureCast study by 4.3 (the number of weeks in in a month), one would imagine that we'd have a number similar to that station's score in Arbitron (with the understanding that MeasureCast's study was from last week, while Arbitron was September). ...

MeasureCast Top Ten -- December 4th-10th 2000

Rank	Station	Format	Network	Total TSL (in hrs.)	RAIN's estimated Monthly Total TSL
1	WABC-AM (New York)	Talk Radio	ABC Radio	80,466	346,004
2	KSFO-AM (San Francisco)	Talk Radio	ABC Radio	46,736	200,965
3	The Beat LA (Los Angeles)	Urban R&B	RadioOne	46,169	198,527
4	WBAP-AM (Dallas / Ft. Worth)	News/Talk	ABC Radio	45,259	194,614
5	WLS-AM (Chicago)	News/Talk	ABC Radio	35,014	150,560
6	KABC-AM (Los Angeles)	Talk Radio	ABC Radio	32,052	137,824
7	Radio Margaritaville (Internet-only)	Classic Rock	Broadcast America	30,816	132,509
8	KGO-AM (San Francisco)	News/Talk	ABC Radio	29,560	127,108
9	3WK Original Underground (Internet-only)	Alternative Rock	3WK	26,837	115,399
10	WPLJ-FM (New York)	CHR/Top 40	ABC Radio	25,249	108,571

...

... Let's look at some of the stations that were common to both studies using our conversion formula. You'll notice above that WABC's "Monthly Total TSL" (again, MeasureCast's weekly number multiplied by 4.3) is nearly twice what Arbitron rated it. KSFO's (Arbitron #47, ATH 61,500) adjusted MeasureCast number was more than three times the Arbitron measurement. WLS-AM (Arbitron #43, ATH 66,900) more than doubles by MeasureCast. Ditto for KGO (Arbitron #51, ATH 60,100). But WPLJ's adjusted monthly number (108,571) is at least in the same ballpark as the Arbitron number (135,900). Does this mean: -- WABC, KSFO, and other News/Talk stations had huge growth in online listenership, possibly due to the post-election turmoil? It will be interesting to see Arbitron's December numbers. -- Subtle methodology differences of the two studies make the numbers illogical to compare?, and... -- If this is true, and we expect advertisers to come to our Internet radio party someday, there's some work to be done in standardizing listening measurement (though broadcast radio stations seem to do fine using different studies that yield different results). To get a rough idea of how many are listening to a station at any given moment, take off the last 3 zeroes off of the monthly number and multiply by 2 (in effect, what you're doing is dividing by 500 -- very roughly the number of "broadcast" hours, that is 6a-12M, in a month). One final thought: As different as the Arbitron and MeasureCast numbers are from each other, they seem to be pretty consistent from study to study. Broadcast veterans know that this is not true in traditional radio, where from week to week and book to book, a station's numbers can rise and fall quite drastically. Now, these Internet numbers measure actual streams, where broadcast ratings are estimations based on respondent "testimony." It's long been believed that broadcast radio listening is actually a lot more consistent than ratings indicate, and this seems to bolster that feeling. ...

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From Inside.com: "Radio station web site developer Feed the Monster Media is now the target of a legal action for failing to 'feed' its employees. Fifty-seven workers of the now-defunct Burbank-based company sued FTMM, Infinity Broadcasting Co., CBS and others on Nov. 22 in the San Fernando branch of the Los Angeles Superior Court.

"The lawsuit cites June Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed by FTMM that purport to show that Infinity and CBS are shareholders and that FTMM's existence is 'dependent' on its relationship with CBS.

"The SEC paperwork also allegedly says that FTMM has a 'history of operating losses' and was in dire straits financially. Despite this, however, FTMM allegedly failed to warn its employees, and instead issued company-wide hopeful e-mails saying that it was in negotiations with investors. To induce workers to continue while payroll was delayed a few days, the company offered options for 500 shares of FTMM stock at $1.50 a share -- even though the stock was trading for less at the time, the suit says.

"On Oct. 13, the company ceased operations (see RAIN story here), and the employees claim they haven't been paid since Sept. 29...

"The lawsuit claims breach of contract, unpaid wages, civil conspiracy and fraud, among other causes of action."

Read the story here.

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From Internet News: "Nielsen//NetRatings Tuesday revealed that streaming media consumption skyrocketed to an all-time high in November 2000, with 35 million Web users at home accessing streaming content, a 65 percent increase from 21 million during the same month last year.

"Thirty-six percent of all Web surfers accessed some form of streaming media in November 2000, as compared to 28 percent during the same time last year. High profile events supported much of the growth in streaming media usage.

"'Historically, branding opportunities have been limited to high profile events in television, radio and print, but now, streaming media is wooing and winning eyeballs on the Web' said T.S. Kelly, director of Internet Media Strategies at NetRatings.'

"'What we're seeing right now are the first steps towards convergence. As the popularity of streaming media grows, television and radio companies are beginning to produce content that captures the Web user, leveraging different media to reach their target audience,' said Kelly."

Read the Internet News story here.

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Dec. 12-14, 2000	Streaming Media West 2000, San Jose, CA
February 1-4, 2001	RAB 2001, Dallas, TX