Arbitron Releases New Streaming Reports

Using the NAB radio conference in San Francisco as an appropriate venue, market research firm Arbitron (www.arbitron.com) released two studies this week examining the state of webcasting and broadband Internet use in the United States.

The first study, a joint effort between Arbitron and Edison Media Research, looked at the attitudes and behaviors of so-called "streamies"--online listeners and viewers.

Streamies spend twice as much as time online as non-streamies, and are 70 percent more likely to have bought something online, said the study.

The study found that listening to radio stations online has more than tripled in two years, from six percent (14 million Americans) in 1998 to 20 percent (45 million Americans) in 2000. In addition, 13 percent of the population has tuned into an Internet-only radio station, says the study.

According to the study, streaming media advertising tends to be more effective than banner ads. Arbitron found nearly 60 percent of those who have seen an online video ad say they pay attention to video ads; 46 percent of those who have heard an audio ad pay attention to it; while just 41 percent of those surveyed pay attention to banner ads.

More than 17,000 people participated in the study, both in telephone interviews and in pop-up surveys online.

In another study, Arbitron, and media research firm Coleman, found that with broadband connections, Internet use in American households rivals that of television and radio use.

The study, "The Broadband Revolution," also released this week at the NAB conference in San Francisco, revealed that the average American spends 33 percent of his or her typical media day with television, followed by radio (28 percent) and the Internet (11 percent). In broadband homes, however, the Internet's share of media time surges to 21 percent, nearly equivalent to television (24 percent) and equal to radio (21 percent).

In addition, the study found that people in broadband households spend 134 minutes a day online, 61 percent more than people in homes with dial-up connections.

"Broadband changes everything," said Warren Kurtz, vice president with Coleman. "This study provides clear evidence that we've only begun to see the Internet's true impact on media usage."