Arbitron says it will discontinue "Total Line Reporting" for broadcasters that don't subscribe to its ratings service -- likely as a way "to woo back non-subscribers that benefit from TLR," suggests Inside Radio (here).
Total Line Reporting enables stations to combine their online simulcast listening with over-the-air listening for ratings purposes. Now, starting with the winter 2014 book in diary markets and the January 2014 report in PPM markets, non-subscribers will be reported as individual stations only. Ad buyers will not see combined ratings for simulcasts of non-subscribing stations, beginning next year.
As we reported here, Arbitron recently changed the requirements for what's considered a "simulcast," requiring stations to stream 100% identical content (programming and ads) only in their home Metro and DMA. The new policy allows the station to stream any content it likes outside its home Metro/DMA.
RAIN Summit Orlando will feature a discussion panel dedicated to ad-insertion and broadcast radio online simulcasts on September 17. We have more detail on that panel here.
"Pureplay" webcasters have long argued for parity for the licensed use of copyright recordings. While U.S. broadcasters have no obligation to pay sound recording copyright owners or performers, Internet-, satellite-, and cable-radio operators pay royalties which can amount to a majority of their revenues. Both broadcasters and newer digital forms of radio pay for the use of musical compositions.
Triton Digital has announced a new partnership with Semcasting, a multi-channel targeting company, to increase targeting capabilities for Triton’s a2x programmatic buying platform for Internet radio.
Media trading desks Xaxis and VMM are partners with Triton for a2x, which the company says has more than two billion online audio impressions from 13 publishers (including CBS, Entercom, and Univision) available every month. Triton says a2x reaches over 10 million unique listeners monthly.
