Triton Shows Mobile Listening Up 38%

Triton Digital has released its monthly online audio Top 20 Ranker for April 2013. The Ranker is a listing of the top-performing Internet audio stations and networks measured by the Webcast Metrics audience measurement platform. Webcast Metrics is accredited by the Media Rating Council.

Webcast Metrics uses a proprietary platform to track audience data and convert it to audience metrics that can be easily understood by stations, publishers and advertisers.

In April 2013, overall listening remained relatively flat, with an overall gain of 1% in Average Active Sessions (AAS) during the All Days/Times daypart from March to April. Taking a look back to the year prior, Triton sees a 24% increase in AAS from April 2012 to  April 2013, with mobile outpacing desktop growth year over year at a 38% increase.

According to Triton digital audio consumption growth continues to be dominated by the mobile platform, even during the traditional in-office hours.

Audience rankings are done on the basis of “Average Active Sessions”, with "Session Starts" and “Average Time Spent Listening” also displayed. Average Active  Sessions (AAS) is defined as “Total Listening Hours (TLH) divided by hours in the reported time period.” TLH is defined as the total number of hours that the station/publisher has streamed during sessions with duration of at least one minute in total within the reported time period. Session Starts (SS) is defined as “the number of different requests for streams (i.e., stream requests) with a duration of at least one minute in total within the reported time period. ”Average Time Spent Listening (ATSL) is defined as “the average number of hours for each session with a duration of at least one minute in total within the reported time period. Calculated as total time spent listening divided by active sessions.”

While Pandora's listening was down a bit, Kurt Hanson at the RAIN newsletter notes broadcast groups like Clear Channel, Cumulus, and CBS Radio all enjoyed 11%-13% AAS bumps in April. Clear Channel (which has the iHeartRadio online radio platform) is up 42% over the past twelve months, and up 21% in 2013 alone. Only Cox among the top broadcast streamers was down in April, 12%. While Cox's AAS is down 10% so far this year, it's still grown 21% since April 2012.

Internet radio pureplay Slacker continues its streak, up another 11% in April (and 40% in 2013). And the online-only webcaster idobi, which seemingly came out of nowhere in November to join the ranks of the top pureplays in Webcast Metrics, also got a 10% AAS bump in April.