Shazam and Partners Working on Radio Ratings

Music and TV recognition app Shazam is working with five US broadcasters to develop a radio audience measurement solution for the country.

The five, which include some of the country's largest radio networks, are iHeartMedia, Cumulus, Entercom, Cox and Sun Broadcast Group. Potentially, the deal could mean more competition for Nielsen Audio, the division created when the ratings giant acquired Arbitron in 2013.

The same year, Shazam launched a TV metric to analyse the real-time activity of its user base, supported by a $40m investment the following month by Mexican telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim; and earlier this year the British company partnered with music industry web site Mediabase to offer weekly analysis of Shazam's top songs in the US, Canada and Europe.
Radha Subramanyam, iHeartMedia's President of Research and Insights, said of the latest developments: 'The richness of our data, combined with Shazam's measurement capabilities, will enable much deeper insights than traditional audio measurement does... More companies measuring the radio industry is better, and the more data they can provide about our audience, the more competitive we can be with large digital players in addition to TV and other media'.

No further details of the partnership are available at this time. Web site: www.shazam.com .