Clear Channel Worldwide’s radio stations will resume Webcasting their terrestrial
programming during the next several weeks, through a plan that dodges some of the prickly
issues facing streaming media.
Clear Channel had been one of several terrestrial radio broadcasters that pulled their
Webcasts following criticism from the American Federation of Television and Recording
Artists — which contended that commercial talents should be receiving royalties from
advertisers for the re-purposing of their work online. AFTRA spokespeople pointed to 1998’s
controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which in part specified that royalties for
digital sound recordings also applied to Webcasts — making the issue both hotly debatable
and potentially litigious.
But now, Clear Channel’s Los Angeles-based interactive unit will reactivate the 150
stations streaming terrestrial broadcasts, and will be adding about a hundred more stations
by year’s end.
That’s going to be accomplished through a revenue-sharing deal with Hiwire, one of
several firms that provides streaming ad insertion technology to terrestrial stations.
Hiwire works by detecting upcoming commercials in a terrestrial broadcast, then “stripping
out” the commercial as the stream is rebroadcast on the Web. In its place, Hiwire inserts
an AFTRA-compliant ad — one for which advertisers have paid Web repurposing fees.
As a result, Clear Channel is back online, and Los Angeles startup Hiwire has a huge new
client. According to the companies, about 200 million avails will be handled through Hiwire
each month — three to six times more inventory than Hiwire previously had across its
network of streaming stations.
“With the remarkable growth of Internet audio over the last several years, Clear Channel
vowed to find a comprehensive approach to streaming that made both legal and financial
sense,” said Kevin Mayer, Clear Channel Interactive’s chief executive and chairman. “Hiwire
has a proven track record of serving ads for Internet radio and has the infrastructure in
place to handle our significant ad inventory.”
And that’s also good news for the future of the fledgling streaming media ad industry,
which experts had been expecting to grow exponentially in the coming years — barring legal
complications.
“The AFTRA debate … seemed like a punch in the stomach of the [streaming radio]
industry. A lot of people were saying, look, this is dead before it every got off the
ground,” said Hiwire spokesman Wayne Hickey. “But Clear Channel is going back online with
250 stations, in the top 50 markets … and that’s a pretty big company that’s putting a
stake in the ground on this.”
Furthermore, the new audiences created by Clear Channel’s commitment to bring new
stations online, and reduced AFTRA liability, likely will combine to make streaming media
buys more appealing.
“I think we’ve overcome that obstacle of there not being enough listeners on the Web to
deliver ads that pay,” Hickey added.
