Study Calls Netcasting "Affluent, Compelling" Ad Value

Internet broadcasting is an affluent, compelling value for advertisers looking to reach an estimated monthly listenership of 51 million, half of whom live in households with incomes of $50,000 a year or better, says a new study by Arbitron and Edison Media Research.

And, in a finding some might have considered unthinkable just a few years ago, the study suggests just short of half of American Netizens, if given the absolute choice, might well sacrifice television in order to keep their Internet access.

"The audience for radio and video broadcasting over the Internet has grown substantially in a very brief period of time," wrote the report's authors, Arbitron vice president/general manager Bill Rose and Edison executive vice president Joe Lenski, in Internet and Multimedia 12: The Value of Internet Broadcast Advertising. "The phenomenon is akin to the rise of FM radio in the 1970s and cable TV in the 1980s."

The authors estimated 21 percent of Americans surveyed say they've watched or heard Internet video or audio between mid-January and early February, with 44 percent age 12 and older saying they've tried Net broadcasting at least once. The authors also said they estimate the weekly Netcast audience at 30 million (13 percent of all Americans), and that consumers are using spam blockers, popup blockers, and banner blockers more frequently at home and office – making them ripe enough for Internet broadcast advertising.

"Internet broadcast consumers spend more time online, shop more often online, and spend more money when they do shop," said Rose separately. "The irony is that these consumers also go out of their way to eliminate most advertising from their online experience. Internet broadcast commercials may be the best way to reach these key consumers while purchasing decisions are being made."

Rose and Lenski also said Netcasting is a kind of soundtrack for online shopping: they determined 42 percent of the Internet radio audience has listened while shopping or researching goods or services online.

"The size of the Internet broadcast audience exceeds most observers' expectations," the authors said. "The monthly Internet radio audience is eight times greater than that of the two satellite radio broadcasters combined. Currently, 2 percent of all Americans say they subscribe to either Sirius or XM… 16 percent of Americans say they have consumed Internet radio in the last month. Including those who have watched online video, the monthly audience for Internet broadcasting… is 51 million, or 21 percent of Americans."

The study's findings also said 60 percent of Netcast consumers are likely to be men while 56 percent of Netizens who don't stream Netcasts regularly are likely to be women, though the monthly Netcast users are distributed evenly between ages 12 and 54 while those who don't use monthly Netcasts tend to be older, between 25 and 64.

Rose and Lenski also said 41 percent of those surveyed said they would rid themselves of television if it meant keeping Internet access.

"We asked online Americans what they would do if given the choice of only keeping the Internet or television," they wrote. "While this question is purely hypothetical, it indicates the passion and importance many Americans place on the Internet as the source of community, information, and communication."