Sunday, April 22, 2001

AFTRA Contract Drives Stations Away From Online

MeasureCast, Inc., the first company to provide Internet radio broadcasters with next-day audience size and demographics reports, today announced that the total number of hours streamed by on-line broadcasters measured by MeasureCast declined nearly five percent during the week of April 9 - 15, due largely to stations temporarily pulling their broadcasts off the Internet as a result of the AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) Recorded Commercials Contract, which requires advertisers to pay a higher fee if ads originally recorded for radio are played over the Internet.

Last week, the MeasureCast Internet Radio Index™ returned to February listening levels, dropping 4.8 percent from a value of 148 to 141. The index has declined a total of 13.3 percent during the past two weeks. However, on-line listening to stations measured by MeasureCast has increased 41 percent since January. Updated weekly, the index is a representation of the trend in Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) across a spectrum of stations measured by MeasureCast.