Triton Digital Gets a Big Thumbs Up From the MRC

Pandora is redefining radio in the hearts and minds of listeners across the country and Triton Digital is redefining the way streaming radio is measured and reported. Triton’s audience measurement solutions have driven the astronomical growth of the digital audio advertising space and helped to ensure Pandora’s presence on local and national broadcast radio buys.

That’s why we’re so excited about Triton’s big announcement today. The Media Rating Council (MRC)—the organization that sets the standard in media audience measurement—has granted accreditation to Triton’s Webcast Metrics Local (WCML) measurement product. WCML makes it possible to quantify the size and scale of digital audio audiences by providing traditional radio metrics like AQH, AQH Rating, Cume, Cume Rating and Total Listener Hours (or Average Active Sessions).

So what does that mean for Pandora, agencies, and advertisers?

Having MRC-accredited audience measurement in all 276 local markets is crucial. This seal of approval underscores the fact that Triton’s methodology is rock solid, ensuring that the audience metrics that Pandora provides to our agencies and advertisers is valid and reliable. Achieving accreditation is no easy feat; it’s a rigorous process. But Triton’s dedication to high quality measurement is reflected in the big thumbs up from the MRC.

“This is a big step forward for the digital audio industry and more specifically Pandora,” said John Trimble, Chief Revenue Officer of Pandora. “The accreditation validates what we’ve said for some time: Pandora is the local ratings leader in advertising’s most coveted demographics and geographies.”

People Are Talking

Global media buying agency, Starcom, has embraced the digital audio opportunity since its earliest days. “With the growing need for better audience measurement and data, Starcom is highly supportive of the MRC’s accreditation of Triton’s Local Webcast Metrics ratings,” says Kevin Gallagher, EVP, Local Marketplaces at Starcom. “This accreditation provides a much-needed apples-to-apples comparison that enables better buying decisions.”

“We congratulate Triton Digital for earning accreditation of the Pandora implementation of Webcast Metrics Local and its Monthly Ranker All Streams Reports,” said George W. Ivie, Executive Director and CEO of the MRC. “This audit and review process broke new ground in validating audio streaming measurements at a local market level, and we look forward to continuing our work with Triton as Webcast Metrics Local grows and evolves.”

Pandora Registration Process

While Triton’s radio metrics are really the star of the show, the MRC accreditation process also reinforces the validity of our registration data. Information about Pandora’s listeners, including zip code, age, and gender, is factored into our implementation of WCML. Based on MRC guidance, our registration process was enhanced to become compliant with MRC standards and guidelines.

Long story short: Now advertisers can feel even more confident in the accuracy of our registration data and the targeting and data that it drives.

What’s Next?

With the accreditation of WCML, we anticipate that more publishers in the digital audio space will begin working with Triton and continue to move our industry forward. In a world where universal measurement is no longer just a pipedream, Pandora is proud to be leading the way along with our friends at Triton Digital.