CBS Radio Tops Ando Media's Internet Audio Top 20

RADIO ONLINE | , , | :am CT

CBS Radio tops Ando Media's monthly Internet Audio Top 20, consisting of May through September, 2009. The media giant's interactive division saw 214,181 average active sessions, 35.4 million session starts and an average time spent listening share of 1.8. Following close behind was Citadel at #4 with 3.3 million session starts and a 4.3 TSL. Entercom (2.2) and Cox Radio (4.5) also made the top ten.

Webcast audience rankings are done on the basis of the new one-minute qualifier, versus the former five-minute qualifier. The five-minute rule (only validating listening for five-minutes in a given period) was a legacy of terrestrial radio measurement and did not accurately reflect digital consumption habits, particularly with mobile devices.

New metrics of "Session Starts," "Average Active Sessions" and "Average Time Spent Listening" better capture the new methodology. Each metric is based on a one-minute qualifier. Session Starts is defined as "The number of streams of one minute or more that are started within a time period." Average Active Sessions is defined as "The average number of streams of one minute or more that are active within a time period." Average Time Spent Listening is defined as "The average number of hours for each session lasting more than one minute within a time period."

"The changes were made in response to requests from both the publisher and the agency community for measurement standards in keeping with other digital best practices. Terrestrial radio AQH and Cume measurements are not the best metrics for measuring today's audience delivered via a digital channel and do not accurately pertain to online audio," stated Ando CEO Robert J. Maccini.

Ando is now in discussions with the MRC for accreditation, and believes this new "one-minute minimum" calculation is more in keeping with MRC standards.

Additionally, there are two other significant changes in the September ranker. For the first time, Domestic listenership will be broken out. Second, Internet audio pioneer Pandora appears in the ranker for the first time.