Why RNWK is a core holding:
June 29, 1999
Webcast Audiences Aren't Just Sitting There, Survey Finds
By LISA NAPOLI
n one of the first large surveys of people who tune in to audio and video broadcasts on the Web, more than two thirds said they are doing more than just listening and watching. Nearly 70 percent said they clicked on links to get information related to the Webcast, and 59 percent said they clicked on nearby advertisements.
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The survey, to be released Tuesday by Arbitron New Media, indicates that Internet users treat so-called streaming media differently than traditional radio and television, creating opportunities for media companies and advertisers.
"The most exciting news for both the Webcasters and the advertisers is that the level of interaction is very strong," said Gregory Verdino, vice president and general manager for Internet information services at Arbitron NewMedia, the interactive division of the broadcast ratings service.
The survey was conducted online this month by Northstar Interactive, a research firm owned by Arbitron NewMedia. Northstar interviewed 1,527 Internet users who were picked randomly at the sites of two major online broadcasters, Broadcast.com and Vtuner.com.
Of the Webcast audience surveyed, 49 percent said they buy products they see advertised during Webcasts or on related sites. This is good news for Internet advertisers, who are eager for surveys that quantify the effectiveness of the new medium. And, as transmitting high-quality audio and video over the Web becomes more viable, Webcasters and advertisers alike are eager to understand the power and reach of the medium and the impact it has on the way people use traditional media.
Sixty-three percent of those surveyed access Webcasts at home, while 47 percent access them at work. This is a change from previous studies by other organizations, which have generally found that high-bandwidth material like audio and video transmissions is more popular at work, where people often have higher-speed Internet connections. The new figures may suggest that more people are getting faster Web access at home, causing shifts in the way they are using the Internet. A third of the respondents said they tune in daily, while three-quarters said they tune in once a week.
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The audience would like a portable device that would allow them to listen to and watch Webcasts anywhere.
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Verdino said the study found that the Internet audience would like to see a portable device that would allow them to listen to and watch Webcasts anywhere. Such a device might receive wireless data or play back stored files. Once such a product is perfected, the effect on traditional broadcasters, or "terrestrial stations" as those in the industry call them, could be enormous.
"Literally, you can be in the Serengeti plains listening to your local radio station, or listening to the Web on the beach," Verdino said. "These devices will have a tremendous impact on how people use audio and video media in general."
Those who track the traditional radio business say the industry is watching developments online. But there is still a divide between those who "get" the medium and those who do not, said Sean Ross, editor of Airplay Monitor, an industry trade publication owned by Billboard.
As examples of Webcasters who are circumventing traditional channels and experimenting with the medium, he pointed to the new online radio station WABY, created exclusively for the Web and based in Schenectady, N.Y., and WOXY, a modern rock station in Cincinnati whose Web audience is larger than its traditional audience.
Though the numbers are still small in comparison to traditional broadcasting, they are growing, and peoples' attitudes toward the Internet are changing. Todd Cuban, chief executive of Broadcast.com, the Dallas-based Webcaster that Yahoo bought recently, said advances in technology and mass acceptance of the Internet are prompting people to view the personal computer as more than a tool for office work.
"They're not looking it as a PC anymore but as a digital device for downloading and listening to audio and video," he said. "Things are evolving from the Internet being an information medium into an entertainment medium."
The Arbitron study is scheduled to be released at Streaming Media East, a two-day Webcasting conference in New York that is expected to draw 3,000 people. Conference organizers said that is twice the size of the crowd that attended a similar conference in San Francisco in November.
"It really represents the birth of an industry itself," said Adam Elgar, president of First Conferences, which produces the Streaming Media shows. "At the last show it was a very much an embryonic technology: 'Ooh this could be the next big thing.' Now it is, 'This is an industry, we're going to take on the TV.' Webcasting has become a serious business application, from it being cool to have a radio application on my Web site to something I have to have, because if I don't, I'll be challenged." |
