Clear Channel Worldwide has begun turning off Internet streams of some of its music stations. The company has offered simulcasts of several hundred broadcasting properties.
For example, the company’s Houston-based KTBZ dropped its stream, blaming “costly fees now required from online broadcasters by the music licensing organizations BMI and ASCAP.” Other Clear Channel stations in Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas also halted their Net casts, according to Radio and Records, a trade publication.
The latest weekly Arbitron MeasureCast rankings of Internet listening show Clear Channel the most popular radio network on the Web, reaching 321,330 people during the week ending Dec. 22.