David Eduardo wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
On Mar 30, 1:57?pm, "David Eduardo" wrote:
wrote in message

oups.com...

"If HD Radio Charges Consumers, Will It Be Considered Competition For
Satellite Radio?"
http://satellitestandard.blogspot.co...io-charges-con...
Notable quote:
"It is pretty much confirmed that HD Radio is going to charge
consumers for content. At what point is the FCC going to consider this
service competition for satellite radio? Ironically, free HD is not
considered competition, but paid service would be!"
It is not confirmed. In fact, no broadcaster I know has any intention of
doing this, as there is no model for charging for single channels or 3 to
4
unrealted channels when XM and Sirius have around 150 each.



Yup, it's a given - looks like the HD Radio Alliance has finally
realized that HD Radio is not going to be terrestrial radio's great
savior, so they have now taken a backseat to Satellite Radio,
forever. Great news !
There is no news of this whatsoever.

"WUSF Testing Conditional Access"

This is a test by a public station, and there is so far no interest on the
part of commercial stations... the other issue is that there is absolutely
no economic model for charging for single channels at the local level.




The fact that this matter is being openly discussed in the industry,
and the personalities who are doing the discussing, begs to differ with
you. There IS interest. Because there's money in it.

This has been discussed since before the formation of iBiquity, when
digital radio was first being discussed as a possible replacement for
AM, back in the late 70's.

That no one you speak to is interested may be one thing. But that
iBiquity are themselves pursuing the technology and the business model
is quite another.

And, for the record, saying 'There's no interest, so far....' is like
a hostess saying, 'Would you like to sit in the smoking section?
There's no one smoking right now." The situation could and will change
in a heartbeat.

There's money in subscription radio. It's been the holy grail of
broadcasting since Sarnoff. There's always been interest. Always.
Because there's money in it. And radio in the US is, has been and always
will be, about the money.

"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
...
David Eduardo wrote:
wrote in message This is a test by a
public station, and there is so far no interest on the part of commercial
stations... the other issue is that there is absolutely no economic model
for charging for single channels at the local level.


The fact that this matter is being openly discussed in the industry, and
the personalities who are doing the discussing, begs to differ with you.
There IS interest. Because there's money in it.

There is no money in it because the economics of offering paid HD would be
limited to the couple of stations any owner has in a market, and the cost
would have to be so low to compete with the cost per channel of satellite.

Every examination of this shows that radio neither has the business model
nor the ability to do the billing and such to generate a profit.

This has been discussed since before the formation of iBiquity, when
digital radio was first being discussed as a possible replacement for AM,
back in the late 70's.

And discarded sort of like On TV.

That no one you speak to is interested may be one thing. But that
iBiquity are themselves pursuing the technology and the business model is
quite another.

I can see it being useful if any station wants to degrade the digital stream
to permit an HD3 channel for narrowcasting, just like we have Farsi "Radio
Teran" on KLVE's SCA. But the subscription requires rental of a special
receiver and it is only marginally profitable... although they send
engineering a big basket of pistachios and dates every year.

And, for the record, saying 'There's no interest, so far....' is like a
hostess saying, 'Would you like to sit in the smoking section? There's no
one smoking right now." The situation could and will change in a
heartbeat.

The problem is economics, based on cost per channel and having enough people
in each market to support 1 to 5 channel mini-assortments of formats. I
believe NPR has the idea of doing this for significant donations, not as a
self-sustaining model.

There's money in subscription radio. It's been the holy grail of
broadcasting since Sarnoff. There's always been interest. Always. Because
there's money in it. And radio in the US is, has been and always will be,
about the money.

There is not the economy of scale, even at Clear Channel, to establish a
billing department and subscription administration for this. In other cases,
you can not build a viable model based on, let's take my case, 50 FMs in 17
markets when we already have commercial models in development.

Sure, it is interesting. But not practical. Even using a fulfillment center
would not create a break-even as the subscription base and variety of
formats is tooooooo low.