About Us

The International Association of Broadcast Monitors is a world-wide trade association made up of news retrieval services which monitor television, radio and print news mediums. It acts as a "clearinghouse" or "forum" for discussion on topics of collective concerns and acts as a united voice for the news monitoring industry. The IABM is dedicated to fostering the exchange of information and goodwill among its members and broadcasters; and to safeguarding the public's right to access news information.

The vast majority of the association's members are small, local businesses which monitor a single market or perhaps two or three regional markets. In major cities such as New York and Los Angeles, broadcast monitoring services are large businesses, some of which have multiple offices and employ hundreds of people. The massive task of broadcast monitoring requires round the clock staffing including researchers, archivists, librarians, editors, technicians, managers, transcribers and customer service.

There are many accomplishments of the IABM. It has:

Created industry dialogue and standards.
Succeeded in world-wide recruitment and outreach.
Developed industry credibility and recognition.
Unified a diverse group of companies from every corner of the world.
Educated Members of Congress and the broadcasters on what the monitoring business is all about.
Supported the continuing effort to get formal legislative recognition of the monitors' right to record news programming and send clips to customers in exchange for a fair royalty paid to the broadcasters.
Prepared a stirring, compelling and powerful "position paper".
Made a united stand to lobby in Washington D.C.
Sacrificed thousands of man-hours and dollars to the IABM causes.
Pooled resources to create a powerful and unified voice for the industry.

Broadcast monitoring is a business born of necessity. Unlike print news, television and radio broadcast news presents a new and unique challenge to the science of keeping informed. It is as ephemeral as it is large and powerful. In other words, it vanishes once it is aired unless it is captured on tape. At the intersection of broadcasting and technology is the new and rapidly growing industry: Broadcast News Monitoring Services.

Broadcast monitoring services alleviate the imbalance between widespread dissemination and limited access to broadcast reports. Like newspaper clipping services, they monitor, track and review local and national news on behalf of their clients, often delivering information within minutes of a broadcast. In turn, customers can quickly learn of, analyze, review, research, comment and appropriately respond to the news affecting them. Monitors perform a useful and productive service for clients who either are unable to view a program when it is broadcast or are geographically removed from the broadcast location. Broadcast monitors simply do for their collective clients what those clients have the right, but neither the resources nor the technology, to do individually for themselves.

The monitoring industry has been able to grow and blossom for these reasons:

A recognized need for timely access to news information broadcast on television and radio.
The ability of the news monitoring industry to provide services more efficiently than any other single source.
A realization that the volume of data is so enormous and inaccessible that it is not cost-effective for affected parties to perform these tasks on their own.
It is generally recognized that broadcast news retrieval is one of today's most important research tools available for maintaining a pulse on issues affecting our times. Broadcast monitors, together with newspaper clipping services, provide customers timely access to all news sources which have unprecedented and limitless influence over public opinion.

Mission Statement

The purposes of this association shall be to:

Foster the exchange of goodwill among its members.
Encourage the exchange and dissemination of industry information among its members.
Act as the spokesperson for the broadcast monitoring industry.
Secure co-operative action in advancing common purposes to the members of the association.
Do anything necessary and proper for the accomplishment of any of these purposes.
This association is organized and operated exclusively for the above stated purposes, and for other nonprofit purposes, and no part of any net earnings shall inure to the benefit of any private member.

Code of Ethics

Broadcasting, both by radio and television, is one of the most important media of the day for the dissemination of public information. Presented ephemerally in a rigid time framework, broadcast information nevertheless daily influences the beliefs and opinions and affects the attitudes and actions of citizens and public officials, both because of the vast numbers of its audiences and because of its unique facility for transmitting visual as well as oral reports.

Unlike the printed media, whose reports are presented in published form, the broadcast media present the public with no permanent record of their presentations and, therefore, with only limited access. Individuals and other entities who have a special interest in, or are the subject of the reports, have no practical means of knowing about them and, therefore, no opportunity of learning from them or of gauging the impact on their reputation and their subsequent actions.

The purpose of broadcast monitoring is to alleviate the imbalance between widespread dissemination and limited access to broadcast reports. To this end, broadcast monitors seek to serve both broadcasters in the fulfillment of their responsibilities to disseminate public information, and individuals and other entities in securing their need or right to know. Broadcast monitoring provides a service which narrows the gap between dissemination and access to broadcast reports. To ensure that broadcast monitors provide this service in a responsible manner fair to all, the members of the International Association of Broadcast Monitors subscribe to this Code of Ethics.

Broadcast monitors shall record material as it is received without any alteration of the material as presented.

Broadcast monitors shall not knowingly assist anyone in the violation of the copyright law or any other rights. Broadcast monitors shall provide to clients only those portions of broadcast reports, which the client indicates he/she has a legitimate interest in obtaining. The information so provided shall constitute portions of the broadcast which are complete in themselves and shall identify the original broadcaster and the monitor providing the information, and except for legends imposed thereon, shall be an accurate record of the material as broadcast.

Broadcast monitors shall place on each container a notice that meets the guidelines of the Association designed to prevent inappropriate or improper use of the material provided.

Broadcast monitors shall maintain accurate records of all transactions in which they provide information, including names and addresses of clients to whom the information is provided.

Broadcast monitors shall not knowingly provide information on programs presented solely for the entertainment of the viewing audience, except that material presented on any type program may be provided for clients known to have a legitimate archival or research interest in having that material. Broadcast monitors wish to foster the widest availability of monitoring services to the community they serve. For this reason, broadcast monitors shall not enter into licensing agreements with broadcasters, which would limit or preclude another monitoring company from pursuing their business by recording, monitoring or selling coverage of that broadcaster.

Any monitor who violates any of the above provisions shall be subject to expulsion from the International Association of Broadcast Monitors.