RealNetworks Inks Audience Measurement Deal
Seattle-based Real continues its efforts to promote streaming media to advertisers and marketers by signingon with a third-party measurement service.
Streaming media audience metrics firm MeasureCast signed RealNetworks to its client roster and announced that the company behind one of the Web’s leading streaming media formats will use its measurement service on its network of Internet video and radio broadcasters.
MeasureCast offers next-day reports on the size and demographic breakdown of a streaming media audience. That information is useful to Internet broadcasters, advertisers and media planners dealing with ad inventory in live Webcasts.
“MeasureCast continues to partner with the leading firms in the streaming media industry to promote the benefits of streaming, and to reduce Internet broadcasters’ time to profit,” said MeasureCast chief executive Edward Hardy. “After rigorous testing, [the Real Broadcast Network] installed our proprietary streaming audience measurement technology on its servers. This is great news for MeasureCast, and it’s terrific news for RBN [advertisers] needing the most accurate and timely audience and demographic data available.”
The deal gives Real leverage with ad buyers by providing third-party measurements. It’s also a huge win for Portland, Or.-based MeasureCast, as Real’s broadcast network consists of more than 650 online radio stations and it has broadcasting deals with more than 80 television and cable networks.
“As the largest hosting solutions provider worldwide for on-line radio … it is critical to have a third-party measurement service, such as MeasureCast, to provide our RBN clients with the opportunity to receive credible audience measurement in Internet time,” said Ian Freed, RBN’s general manager. “This agreement with MeasureCast enables our joint customers to measure and analyze the impact of their broadcasts, which in turn will help support the generation of substantial advertising revenue.”
The two companies also said the agreement includes future joint marketing programs to promote and expand the streaming media market. Specifics of the initiative were not disclosed.
Seattle-based Real has been ratcheting up its networks’ appeal for marketers and advertisers as of late. Earlier this month, the company said it would sell and support ads created in Unicast’s Superstitial streaming ad format.
