[BC] Streaming spots

[Kevin Trueblood]

When I started streaming at my previous group, I contacted a rather 
promenant attorney to clarify the whole AFTRA issue.  His words were 
that the whole AFTRA case was a big ballyhoo several years ago that 
is not as big of a deal today.  He went on to say that most agency 
spots are cleared for streaming without issue but there are some that 
aren't.  He said that it's the responsibility of the ad agency to 
flag those spots to stations so they can block them as necessary.  If 
a spot were to run that wasn't supposed to the responsibility falls 
on the agency.  If they didn't notify us it wasn't cleared for 
streaming, they don't have much of a case.

Mind you, this is in a smaller market.  Not sure how that would work 
if you've got AFTRA members in house.  I can't think of one major 
market station I've streamed that doesn't block ads.

Putting on a 24/7 syndicated talk station last year the only 
contracts I came across that required blocked ads were the big ones 
from Premiere (Rush, Beck, etc...).

Of course, since the first big todo, streaming has become more 
sophisticated and blocking and replacing ads are a whole lot 
easier.  So a lot of stations just knock the stopsets out just to 
avoid the whole mess altogether.  The downside to that is Arbitron 
requires a 100% simulcast, spots included, to get credit for streaming online.

Kevin Trueblood