Arbitron is suing a Cleveland television station that's reportedly joint-selling with Pandora, and allegedly improperly using Arbitron data.
Arbitron accuses Gannett WKYC-TV of infringing on its copyright in media kits the station is distributing. The sales kits -- "Bringing Local Internet Radio Advertising to Cleveland!" -- include several months of 2011 PPM data, along with Arbitron trademarks.
In summer of 2011, Pandora and Edison Research began announcing results of studies they said showed Pandora's emergence as a significant competitor to traditional radio in major U.S. radio markets, comparing local Pandora listening to published Arbitron "cume" and AQH measurements of local major-market radio stations. Finally in December, Arbitron issued a paper called "Thoughts on Comparing Audience Estimates," saying comparisons of its PPM measurements and listening measurements based on server logs from "Internet music services" are unreliable. (See more in RAIN here.)
In June of last year Pandora announced its Pandora Local Reseller Program to allow local media companies to bundle its ad inventory into packages for local advertisers (see RAIN coverage here, and Pandora's own announcement here).
As Tom Taylor reports, the media kit says Pandora offers, "No clutter! Pandora serves only ads every 20 minutes in-between songs. Only one ad per screen – 100% share of screen. Audience is guaranteed, not estimated. No wasted impressions! We are the only way to buy Pandora locally, in Northeast Ohio."
Read today's Tom Taylor Now here.
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