StreamAudio Thwarts Hijackers of Internet Radio Streams

StreamAudio Thwarts Hijackers of Internet Radio Streams

NEW YORK, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- StreamAudio introduces new software that prevents "hijackers" from intercepting and stealing Internet radio streams.

StreamAudio, a leading provider for streaming radio stations' signals on the Internet, announced today that it has released a new software feature that detects when a listener's request for a stream is coming from an unauthorized source; that is, from a "hijacking" site. There are lots of Internet sites worldwide that link to radio station streams and intercept the listener's request to "Listen Live" to an Internet broadcast. Once the listener connects, the audio and advertising content is streamed to the listener from a player of the hijacker's choice, not the radio station's official player. This way, the hijacker gets the advertising impressions and corresponding revenues, but the radio station still gets the streaming bill and pays for all royalties (i.e., they play, you pay).

Darren Harle, President and General Manager of StreamAudio, said, "We have found a way to detect and stop an unauthorized request for a stream, warn the listener that the request is coming from an unauthorized site, and give the listener a chance to re-direct their request for a stream back to the radio station's web site. With this, we both thwart the hijacker and help radio stations keep their listeners, their traffic levels, and their available impression in tact."

Jay White, Corporate Director of Operations for MCC Radio, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morris Communications Company said, "Until StreamAudio brought this to our attention, we had no idea that this 'hijacking' practice was so prevalent. We never really thought about other websites stealing our product, but knew it had the potential to cost us a lot of money if they did. We promote our station streams at the local level, and other than increasing the number of streaming sessions, there is no benefit to streaming our stations to anyone but our local listeners. Our formula is to drive our listeners through the station's website to the station's stream, maximizing page views for the home page. We asked StreamAudio's Customer Support to turn on their Stream Protection feature immediately. In October of 2007 we finished the migration of our radio streams from brand X, a Windows Media Player based provider, and noticed that our bandwidth usage for those stations dropped by almost 50% with stream protection.

"There are literally hundreds of sites on the web that 'hijack' radio streams. Some of these simply want to offer music from their own sites at no cost to themselves, and some larger, more malicious sites want to develop large listener audiences at little or no cost," said Paul Distefano, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for StreamAudio. "Many of these sites have thousands of radio station links from over 20 countries worldwide. It is amazing that they can build a large listener base and deliver multiple thousands of streams (with their own advertising) without any of their own programming or streaming infrastructure (like data centers, firewalls, streaming/ad servers, bandwidth, etc). In the process of implementing this new software feature for our customers, we have found that up to 50% of broadcasters' streams were being hijacked."

About StreamAudio

StreamAudio (formally ChainCast Networks) provides cost-effective Internet streaming solutions for radio media groups. StreamAudio offers an industry-leading list of streaming features and software, such as live and on-demand streaming, ad replacement/insertion, stream protection, podcasting, program blackout, data collection for streaming stats and RIAA royalty payments, etc. Its clients include over 40 media groups, such as Cox Radio, Cumulus, Emmis, Simmons, Zimmer, etc. StreamAudio provides streaming services for approximately 500 radio stations, serving over 12 million streaming hours monthly. StreamAudio was founded in 1999 and is based in San Jose, California, at 4020 Moorpark, Suite 206, San Jose, CA 95117. For additional information, please visit http://www.streamaudio.com/.

About Morris

Morris Communications is a privately held media company with diversified holdings that include newspaper and magazine publishing, outdoor advertising, radio broadcasting, book publishing and distribution, and online services. MCC Radio, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Morris Communications Company, LLC. MCC Radio holdings include 6 radio stations in Anchorage, Alaska; 9 stations in Gray's Harbor and Wenatchee, Washington; 8 Stations in Palm Springs, California; 8 Stations in Topeka and Salina, Kansas; and 2 stations in Amarillo, Texas. Morris also has a station in the Principality of Monaco. All 26 stations that Morris streams are serviced by StreamAudio. See http://www.morris.com/.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: StreamAudio; Morris Communications

CONTACT: Paul Distefano, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of
StreamAudio, +1-408-234-8348, pdistefano@streamaudio.com; or Jay White,
Corporate Director of Operations of Morris Communications Company,
jay.white@morris.com

Web site:

http://www.streamaudio.com/
http://www.morris.com/

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