[BC] Tracking digital listenership

[WFIFeng at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/21/2007 2:41:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
shnewman at alaweb.com writes:

> Talk about the fragmentation problems we have now? I'll bet ARB is NOT 
>  looking forward to this at all. 15,20 or 30 thousand or more stations 
>  available from all over the world. Great! How do ad agencies handle this 
>  one? New challenges ahead, eh? To say the least.

If it's WiFi or similar... the devices are truly two-way. You tune into a 
stream, and a server, somewhere, logs it. ARB will be *old hat*. Lisnership can 
still remain 100% anonymous, but now, "stations" will have something I 
fantasized about as a kid... a realtime "Listenometer"! On a screen or wherever they 
chose to display it (a big sign in the Control Room?) they will have a 
live-updated display of the number of units that are receiving their stream *right 
now*.

I know that some (most?) streaming services have the ability to report those 
numbers to the stream providers. Making them realtime wouldn't be too 
difficult, I'm sure. The technology already exists. Once Internet access goes *fully 
wireless*, "everywhere", then "terrestrial radio" as we know it is going to 
face some major changes. (It's already seeing some of them.)

Willie...




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