BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
Arbitron and comScore have released their latest Online Radio Ratings studies for the months of October and November.

AOL Radio continued to hold a lead over Yahoo! Launchcast for the "most listened-to" webcast spot, a spot is has held since August '06.

Windows Media Guide's ratings were again not reported in the October and November comScore Arbitron reports for reasons not specified in the release. Also, after a sharp drop in reported ratings in October, ESPN Radio's numbers were not reported in the November ratings.

The charts pictured show the comScore Arbitron ratings for paneled webcasters. The top chart represents a twelve-month look at M-Su AQH for the webcasters, while the bottom chart shows M-F AQH over the last six months.

The "average quarter hour" estimate, or AQH, is defined as the estimated average number of persons tuned to a channel  for at least five minutes during a 15 minute period. It can be understood as "the number of people listening to a station at a specific moment."





November 2006

comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings

Rank	Station/Network	AQH	Weekly Cume
1		210,694	1,865,996
2		155,718	2,047,351
3		81,297	1,163,829
4		56,624	720,445
Total:		504,333	5,797,621

comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings

Rank	Station/Network	AQH	Weekly Cume
1		336,364	1,167,980
2		266,720	1,367,303
3		149,198	929,866
4		100,089	522,546
Total:		852,371	3,987,695

comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings

Rank	Station/Network	AQH	Weekly Cume
1		201,845	1,670,247
2		163,499	2,025,903
3		84,326	1,143,577
4		64,638	758,571
5		1,117	23,958
Total:		515,425	5,622,256

comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings

Rank	Station/Network	AQH	Weekly Cume
1		342,607	1,083,419
2		288,206	1,399,892
3		156,196	972,893
4		111,055	517,930
5		1,902	19,057
Total:		899,966	3,993,191

From the Doc Searls Weblog: "USA Today says Sirius and XM are going to merge. Mel Karmazin, possibly the wisest guy in commercial radio, will be the CEO. Gary Parsons, currrent CEO of XM, will be chairman.

"There are a number of problems with this merger; but they're also problems with satellite radio in general:

(1) Antitrust... The only thing keeping this merger out of antitrust territory is the still experimental nature of the whole medium, and the fact that neither company as it stands is known for its profitability. (Sirius reported positive cash flow only late last year.)

(2) Program quality. The new company will presumably encourage production of radios that receive both services, which will be nice... but I find it hard to imagine how a drop in competition will improve anything...

(3) Monoculture. I don't care how diverse the programming becomes, it's still coming from too few companies. When the choice gets down to one, I guarantee that programming will have a homogenous quality to it... At some point 'Xirius'' homogeneity will not compete against the absolute heterogeneity that listeners already find outside the walled garden(s) of satellite radio.

(4) Obsolescence. When the two services started (around a decade ago), a total of 300 different 'channels' (around 150 apiece) seemed like a lot... But now the sum of all program choices runs into the thousands or perhaps even millions... (On the 'T' this morning here in Boston, I noted that a quarter of all the commuters in my subway car were listening to something on earphones. I'm sure it wasn't radio — satellite or otherwise.).. listeners want to program their own 'stations'. Many listeners, which we used to call 'consumers' are now also producers, for themselves and others. Where does satellite radio fit in that picture? I don't think even Mel Karmazin [left] knows...

(5) Costs. The running costs of maintaining satellite radio infrastructure is high, to say the least...

(6) Revenues. Subscriptions may be enough. But if they're not, what will happen when something better obsoletes the kind of advertising that has sustained radio for the duration? I may be wrong about this, but I've long believed that the inherent inefficiencies of broadcast advertising will doom the model in the long run. I haven't been right yet about that, so feel free to continue not believing me.

"I'm not saying I don't approve of the merger, by the way. If this is what we need to keep satellite radio alive, all the better. But I think it's important to keep the downsides in mind — not just for the merger, but for satellite radio itself."

Read this item in the Doc Searls Weblog here.