Arbitron publishes an annual report Radio Today that provides an interesting snapshot of radio listening in the US. For the first time, the 2009 report includes streaming stations in its list of National Format Shares and Station Counts.
Overall, 43% of US broadcast stations are streaming online. 48% of all FM stations are streaming their programming while only 10% of those stations are rebroadcasting it on HD.
32% of AM stations are streaming, less than 4% are distributing it on HD. Of the stations that are also producing additional HD multicast channels (537 in all), 46% are also streaming that programming on side channels. Overall, less than 1% of broadcast stations are sending their programming in HD.
Classical stations are most likely to stream their programming – 82% of classical stations are streaming. After that, Contemporary Christian, CHR, Alternative and AAA formats are most likely to be streamed. Interestingly, only 52% of news/talk stations and 48% of talk/personality stations are streaming.
Those stations don’t have to pay per performance music royalties, which keeps some broadcasters from streaming, so it’s surprising that they’re not distributing their content online.
While streaming seems to have taken hold among most of the larger broadcast companies – Clear Channel, CBS, Citadel, Entercom, Radio One, Cox, and many others stream all or most of their stations – there’s obviously a large segment of stations that don’t stream, preferring to distribute their content solely via their tower.
— Jennifer Lane, President, Audio4Cast.com, has a long career in Internet radio. Read her blog about the business of Internet radio and digital audio at www.Audio4cast.com .
