ABSTRACT
The webcast industry in the United States grew from a very well developed media industry. The country is the largest exporter of electronic media in the world. Broadband service providers are an important force in pushing the development of the webcast industry because attractive content is the key reason for users to subscribe to broadband. Since webcasts require high bandwidth to provide good quality audio and video, broadband service providers use webcast content to attract broadband subscribers. Webcast Metrics uses actual listener data gathered directly from webcasters’ media servers to report actual usage. It limits its measurement to web Radio stations only. It attempts to replace Measurecast, a similar service bought out by Arbitron but discontinued in April 2004. Among the 20 leading radio and video webcasters, only seven have parent companies that are publicly listed in the stock market.
