Arbitron will begin reporting listening for Internet streaming and HD-R multicast stations in Portable People Meter markets next month. These stations must encode and meet minimum reporting standards.
The audience research firm said this week that 69 of the 78 eligible HD2 stations are encoding for the PPM as well as five of the seven HD3 stations; 147 of the eligible 187 combination “AM/FM/Web” stations are also encoding.
In order to ensure proper encoding, Arbitron recommends Internet streams should be operating with a minimum bit rate of 32 kilobits per second and a sample rate of 44.1 kHz.
Only streaming related to AM/FM broadcast stations will be included. Internet-only stations are not included.
