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Audio Streaming Sites Benefit From 'Stickiness' NEW YORK, April 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that Web traffic to SIRIUS Satellite Radio grew an impressive 188 percent year over year, increasing from 666,000 unique visitors in March 2005 to 1.9 million in March 2006 (see Table 1). Concurrent with Howard Stern's January 2006 debut on SIRIUS, SIRIUS Satellite Radio's Web site traffic surpassed XM Satellite Radio's Web site traffic for the first time, drawing 2.3 million unique visitors compared to XM's 1.6 million. SIRIUS continued to outpace its primary competitor online in February and March. Nevertheless, XM Satellite Radio saw strong year-over-year growth as well, climbing 47 percent, from 1.2 million unique visitors last March to 1.7 million in March of this year. "The satellite radio market is enjoying vibrant growth, due to increasing interest among first time subscribers," said Jon Gibs, senior director of media, Nielsen//NetRatings. "While SIRIUS has seen significant growth specifically due to Howard Stern's programming, both services benefit from individuals going to their site, not just to sign up for service, but also to listen to content while they are without their players," he continued. Table 1: Unique Audience to Satellite Radio Providers (U.S., Home and Work) _________________________________________________________________________ Brand Jan. 06 Feb. 06 Mar. 06 March Y-O-Y Growth UA (000) UA (000) UA (000) _________________________________________________________________________ SIRIUS Satellite Radio 2,313 1,594 1,921 188% _________________________________________________________________________ XM Satellite Radio 1,585 1,585 1,699 47% _________________________________________________________________________ Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, April 2006 The "Stickiness" Factor In addition to growing Web traffic, both SIRIUS and XM Satellite Radio are enjoying increased consumer loyalty, due to streaming online content. In March, SIRIUS and XM saw an average of 3.5 and 3.7 sessions per person, respectively (see Table 2). This return visitation rate places the Web sites of these satellite radio providers on par with other popular streaming audio sites, including Rhapsody, Clear Channel Music Radio Network, and MSN Radio. The average time spent per person at the SIRIUS site was nearly 15 minutes. At XM, it was just over 13 minutes. At work, satellite radio subscribers are especially likely to access streaming content online, where broadband penetration is nearly 90 percent. For SIRIUS, 44 percent of users logged in to access a media player for streaming content; for XM, it was 27 percent. "Satellite radio services have traditionally been thought of as linked to a specific satellite radio device. It is becoming clear that satellite radio subscribers are accessing the content they subscribe to online," said Gibs. "As these services continue to gain in popularity by adding new talent and programming, they could become a significant threat to online music subscription services such as Rhapsody and MSN Radio." Table 2: Loyalty Metrics for Selected Audio Streaming Sites, March 2006 (U.S., Work Only) _________________________________________________________________________ Site Sessions Per Person Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss) _________________________________________________________________________ Rhapsody 3.81 0:18:17 _________________________________________________________________________ XM Satellite Radio 3.73 0:13:05 _________________________________________________________________________ Clear Channel Music Radio Network 3.72 0:25:18 _________________________________________________________________________ SIRIUS Satellite Radio 3.54 0:14:50 _________________________________________________________________________ MSN Radio 2.72 0:56:05 _________________________________________________________________________ Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, April 2006 ********************************************************* Nielsen//NetRatings reports March 2006 data for the Top Sites by Parent Company and Top Brands. In addition, Nielsen//NetRatings reveals the Top Advertisers by Company for March 2006. Nielsen//NetRatings Top 10 Web Sites by Parent Company and Top 10 Web Sites By Brand, March 2006 Table 1. Top 10 Parent Companies, Table 2. Top 10 Brands, Combined Home & Work Combined Home & Work _______________________________________________________________________ Parent Unique Time Per Brand Unique Time Per Audience Person Audience Person (000) (hh:mm:ss) (000) (hh:mm:ss) _______________________________________________________________________ Microsoft 115,161 2:16:10 Yahoo! 105,027 3:28:39 _______________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! 105,516 3:28:29 Microsoft 99,368 0:50:16 _______________________________________________________________________ Time Warner 101,021 5:05:52 MSN 95,124 1:52:10 _______________________________________________________________________ Google 94,829 1:02:32 Google 93,244 1:00:56 _______________________________________________________________________ eBay 61,684 1:58:14 AOL 75,348 6:13:54 _______________________________________________________________________ News Corp. Online 57,013 1:34:21 eBay 55,573 1:59:18 _______________________________________________________________________ InterActive- Corp 56,767 0:29:46 MapQuest 40,809 0:12:05 _______________________________________________________________________ Amazon 48,025 0:25:19 Amazon 40,721 0:23:21 _______________________________________________________________________ Walt Disney Internet Group 41,794 0:34:46 Real 36,961 0:43:00 _______________________________________________________________________ New York Times Company 39,012 0:16:03 MySpace 36,373 2:09:04 _______________________________________________________________________ Example: The data indicates that 39.0 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the New York Times Company-owned sites or launched a New York Times Company-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 16 minutes and 3 seconds at one or more of their sites or applications. A parent company is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single entity. A brand is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content. Reach is a measure of the unduplicated audience that visits a property. The data is expressed as the percentage of the total universe of Internet users who logged onto the Internet at least once during the reporting period. Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance Top 10 Advertisers, March 2006 Top advertisers, ranked by estimated spending, are based on data from AdRelevance, Nielsen//NetRatings' advertising research service. An impression is counted as the number of times an ad is rendered for viewing. Top 10 Advertisers by Estimated Spending _________________________________________________________________________ Advertiser Total Estimated Spending Impressions (000) _________________________________________________________________________ Vonage Holdings Corp $37,256,300 16,601,261 _________________________________________________________________________ GUS Plc $23,223,500 14,087,830 _________________________________________________________________________ Verizon Communications, Inc. $20,994,200 6,352,000 _________________________________________________________________________ Netflix, Inc. $18,250,700 8,121,311 _________________________________________________________________________ United Online, Inc. $17,798,900 5,762,282 _________________________________________________________________________ LowerMyBills.com, Inc. $13,415,800 2,564,188 _________________________________________________________________________ InterActiveCorp $10,742,700 3,849,143 _________________________________________________________________________ The News Corporation Limited $10,054,600 2,977,715 _________________________________________________________________________ Monster Worldwide, Inc. $9,918,000 2,372,500 _________________________________________________________________________ E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp. $9,465,000 2,373,729 _________________________________________________________________________ Estimated spending reflects CPM-based advertising online, and excludes search-based advertising, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, partnership advertising, advertorials, promotions and email. Impressions reported exclude house ads, which are ads that run on an advertiser's own or related property and co-branding relationships. Example: An estimated 2.4 billion E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp. ads were rendered for viewing at the cost of approximately $9.5 million during the surfing period. About Nielsen//NetRatings NetRatings, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRT) delivers leading Internet media and market research solutions, marketed globally under the Nielsen//NetRatings brand. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for Internet audience measurement and premier source for online advertising intelligence, enabling clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet and digital strategies. The Nielsen//NetRatings portfolio includes panel-based and site-centric Internet audience measurement services, online advertising intelligence, user lifestyle and demographic data, e-commerce and transaction metrics, and custom data, research and analysis. For more information, please visit http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/. CONTACT: Suzy Bausch, +1-408-941-2965, or Leilani Han, +1-408-941-2930, both for NetRatings, Inc. DATASOURCE: Nielsen//NetRatings CONTACT: Suzy Bausch, +1-408-941-2965, or Leilani Han, +1-408-941-2930, both for NetRatings, Inc. Web site: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/

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