SurferNETWORK.com and MeasureCast Partner

MeasureCast (www.measurecast.com) , a streaming audio audience measurement service, and SurferNETWORK.com ( www.surfernetwork.com) , an on-line aggregator of terrestrial radio broadcasters, formed a strategic partnership. The companies indicated that the relationship would work to increase ad revenues for SurferNETWORK's online broadcasters through streaming audience measurement and advertiser-supported streaming media programming.

As part of the agreement, MeasureCast also will customize its streaming audience measurement software for SurferNETWORK's technology.

"Internet radio's success depends upon advertiser support,'' said MeasureCast CEO Ed Hardy in a statement. "This partnership will help stations in the SurferNETWORK Alliance generate additional ad revenue. And it provides us the opportunity to put the MeasureCast solution into the hands of hundreds of additional on-line broadcasters. Gordon Bridge and I share the same commitment to work together to keep the streaming broadcast business growing.''

Also under the agreement, both companies will conduct marketing activities to promote Internet radio and the branding attributes of streaming media to the advertising community.

In its Internet Radio Report for the week of April 23-29, MeasureCast noted that the number of people listening to streaming audio over the Internet continued to increase despite the decisions made by some traditional AM and FM stations to pull their programs off the Internet. The MeasureCast Internet Radio Index for the week ending April 29 increased 2.4 percent — from 132 to 135.

Some terrestrial stations have pulled their streams off the Internet due to the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) Recorded Commercials Contract, which requires broadcaster to pay additional fees when transferring advertisements online .

"While recent events have temporarily forced some terrestrial broadcasters off the Internet, clearly, people continue to listen to online radio stations,'' said Hardy in a statement. "Internet radio continues to grow. We've seen a 35 percent increase in the total number of hours streamed since January. Moving ahead, industry leaders have to band together to negotiate around the obstacles put in their paths so they can continue to build their audiences.''

The report also indicated that Internet-only stations were receiving more attention in recent weeks. Measurecast reported that 14 of the top 25 stations in the last week of April list were Internet-only stations, compared to five in the MeasureCast standings for the week ending April 1.

In related news, Microsoft is making MeasureCast's Active Event Monitoring software plug-in for Windows Media Services available for free download today from the Microsoft Web site at www. microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download . MeasureCast also will provide Microsoft with support for future enhancements to the Windows Media server software.