Technology360

A moving experience

A week ago tonight I was in a Spokane, Washington hotel awaiting a morning one-way flight to Washington, DC.  It had been exhausting and emotional week-plus organizing the move of my household goods and that day marked the last one I would spend in the house on a northern Idaho mountain ridge where I'd lived with my family for the past 21 years.  My two youngest children are now grown and gone and my wife and her parents, who'd lived there with us, are deceased, so I was planning to sell the place even before this new job came up rather quickly at the end of February.  What I'd thought might be a two or three month process turned into a two or three week process -- absolutely insane.

But my last day there also had some magic moments.  When the atmosphere is absolutely pristine, I can see to the southeast some mountains on the other side of Elk City, Idaho, about 110-120 miles away.  I've seen them only 3-4 times in the 21 years I lived there, but there they were at breakfast.  And while bald eagles gather in great numbers, usually in January, on Lake Coeur d'Alene some 75 miles to the north-northeast, their appearance around my property is only slightly more common than the distant mountain view.  Yet after lunch, there was one mature one circling my property.  Wow!

Returning to the theme of this blog with a "department of personal experiences" report:

My March commuting to Washington is now over and I'm awaiting my car and household goods in a small 14th-floor apartment in the city.  My new broadcast reception is so far all-digital.  I sent an HDTV monitor and Samsung DTV decoder (5th-gen chip) on by UPS and purchased a Sangean HD Radio component tuner which I'm currently using with the HDTV monitor's RGB input.  I have floor to ceiling door to the balcony and have tried the DTV tuner with two antennas -- a small Phillips model in a weather-proof wing-like enclosure that's meant to be mounted on an outside pole, and a Terk UHF log periodic with a built-in set of standard rabbit ears.  The FM antenna is a standard twin-lead folded dipole laying on the floor in a sort of drooping T configuration.  I don't know where the transmitters are located, but my antennas are looking toward the east.

The HD Radio performs quite well on the FM band.  I can pick up several HDR stations, including WAMU and WETA-FM, the local NPR stations.  The Phillips TV antenna worked well back in Idaho, but here it enables only a handful of channels to be accessed via scanning.  The Terk does much better with the rabbit ears extended, though I've not found any configuration that permits me to pick up the Washington PBS stations, WETA and WHUT.  I can, however, get a Maryland Public Television station as well as the "MHz" public station from Virginia (which is broadcasting five SD channels, all of which look pretty good).

The HD Radio experience is pretty seamless, thank goodness, but the repeated scan/adjust antenna/rescan/adjust antenna/rescan thing on the TV side is a real pain and I doubt many consumers will go through it.  Who invented this turkey?!?  Oh, it does look nice when it locks in on a channel. 

Updated 7 April 2008:
Stephen Hill writes privately (highly paraphrased here), Get cable!.  Yes, I'm going to do that as soon as my large screen shows up, and my unstated point is that so will most other over-the-air viewers.  To traditional broadcasters -- and especially to public television stations -- these viewers will then become economically much less important (see many earlier posts on this topic).  --Dennis

HD Radio's critics

Kurt Hanson and Mark Ramsey -- others, too -- continue to take shots at HD Radio (see Black Friday for HD Radio in hear2.0).  At its present state of deployment by iBiquity, the CE world and us broadcasters, those shots are probably deserved.  Multicasting was an improvement and there are some neat enhancements in development.  But the HD Radio vision needs revitalizing even before it's reached a single digit percentage of market share.

Revitalizing means rethinking radio along lines that are making its non-transmitter competitors so attractive to so many (or maybe I should say too attractive to too many).  We need to retool HD Radio as an open platform, something that its SMIL mark-up language encourages.  I've written here in the past about one way to do it (apparently to zero effect) that I was calling a many-to-many radio, but I'm sure there are others.  Give each radio station program channels limited only by how much of both kinds of IP they can buy.  Then give each listener the ability to customize channels to his or her preferences and listening habits.  This isn't brain surgery, folks.

Great minds think alike update.  I'd just posted the above when I ran across John Proffitt's very good post, iBiquity: How a closed-source model is killing HD Radio.  Covers much of the same ground as mine, but more thoughtfully.  Link:  Gravity Medium.  --Dennis

The end for digital radio - or the start of a listening revolution?

And we thought that the Brits were doing digital radio right.

Owen Gibson and Katie Allen write:

Millions of people who have invested in new digital radios were yesterday wondering whether they would be left with little more than expensive ornaments after Britain's biggest commercial radio group all but abandoned the medium.  ¶  The owner of Capital Radio, Classic FM and Xfm was an enthusiastic champion of digital audio broadcasting (DAB) under its previous management, spending an estimated £80m on new transmitters and stations. ...

... Claiming the medium was "not economically viable", GCap will concentrate instead on its existing FM services and innovations in online listening such as technology allowing iPhone users to hear its stations. It hopes the moves will save £8.8m a year and help fend off a takeover approach from a rival group, Global Radio. ...

... With commercial players coming under pressure from the internet and the dominance of the BBC, some also claim they have failed to invest in creative new formats. The provision of digital radio in cars has been undermined by a lack of support for the medium in other European countries. And a vocal minority of listeners has complained about sound quality, claiming an early decision to compress the signal to allow for more stations has left it worse than FM. Coverage outside the main cities can also be patchy. The technology reaches 80% of the population but only covers 65% of the UK. ...

Link:  The Guardian.  --Dennis

On the continuing end of broadcasting as usual

Doc Searls writes:

... PORS (my new initialism for Plain Old Radio Service: AM/MW, FM, shortwave) is growing ever more anachronistic — and so are efforts either to A) give it with a digital gloss (as do the IBOC digital enhancements to AM and FM, which have made listening worse on old radios while reaching too damn few new ones), or B) replace it with something new developed decades ago (such as DAB), while still sounding like regular old radio stations (while listeners are moving by the millions to iPods and other alternatives over which they are the ones in control). ...

Link: Doc Searls Weblog.  If you're attending the Public Media 2008 conference in L.A. this week, you can ask Doc about this.  He's going to be joining Rafat Ali and Diane Mermigas on a "Technology and Trends" panel I'm moderating on Thursday.  --Dennis

Nationalizing the HD Radio stations

Larry Rosin of Edison Media Research writes:

... What can the radio industry do to get people to "want their HD?" ...

... I have a more radical proposal: Instead of marketing the local HD options, we should be nationalizing the HD radio stations.  ¶  Think about it. Right now, the overwhelming majority of HD stations are barely-produced, barely-tended jukeboxes. The HD Alliance worked to create a system to put formats on that were additive instead of duplicative, in most places. And that's great. But if there is no Alternative station in your market, what would be more compelling? A no-DJ Alternative jukebox? Or KROQ in Los Angeles? Yes, with the traffic updates, Lakers scores, and everything else. My instincts say: KROQ in a landslide. ...

Link:  The Infinite Dial (originally published in Radio & Records).  --Dennis

Radio has picture perfect future

Spencer Kelly has an article that talks about what radio broadcasters in the UK are doing using their digital capacity to enhance radio broadcasting.  He writes:

... As a station for the UK's fashion conscious, up-to-the-minute, MySpace-ing youth, Radio 1 is already trying to fulfil its audience's visual expectations by providing pictures for the digital TV screen, even filming the concerts they broadcast.  ¶  They and other broadcasters are trying find the right pictures to accompany the sound, anything from comedian Russell Brand's rants to a YouTube camera during his radio show to information like the station logo and track data.  ¶  For commercial broadcasters they now have the opportunity to show adverts on the screen with click-throughs to the advertisers' websites. ...

Link:  BBC News.  --Dennis

Is Terrestrial Radio Destined to Die?

... asks Celeste Headlee for National Public Radio's Day to Day program.  Here's the set-up:

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to decide next week whether satellite radio companies Sirius and X-M can merge. Satellite radio has roughly 20 million listeners, but new technologies are posing a challenge to market shares.  ¶  Celeste Headlee reports on the development of portable Internet radio. Then NPR's Alex Cohen gets a primer from Wilson Rothman, an editor at Gizmodo.com on the difference between leading radio technologies and Madeleine Brand talks with Mark Ramsey, president of Mercury Radio Research, about why the emergence of new technologies won't spell the end for terrestrial radio.

And you can listen to the audio at this NPR link (0:12:24).  The interview with Ramsey is particularly good.  Thanks to Roger Johnson for the heads up.  --Dennis

Wired tests four HD Radio models

The October issue of Wired tests four HD Radio models, the Cambridge SoundWorks 820HD (8 of 10 dots), the Polk Audio Designs HDX3 (7 dots), the Sangean HDR-1 (6 dots), and the Radiosophy HD100 (4 dots).  Note that the tests seem to have been for usability and sound only, not how well the radios actually pick up the HD Radio signal and, with HD Radio, that's important.  The inexpensive Radiosophy unit and the two I mention below all test well in that area.  Link:  Wired.

Note that there are many other HD Radio models on the market.  For example, at the lower price range there is the Boston Acoustics Receptor Radio HD that I have on my desk at the office and the Accurian Tabletop HD Radio sold by RadioShack.  --Dennis

Digital broadcasting set to transform communication landscape by 2015

  In the U.S., virtually all writing about the digital broadcasting transition is framed in marketplace terms.  Often, this commentary has a pessimistic spin as did an article in the Charlotte Observer from the NAB Radio Show that I posted on Thursday, Bad times ahead for terrestrial radio.  However, in Europe and some other parts of the world, the benefits of the transition are seen in more social democratic terms, as in this press release from the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva:

A treaty agreement was signed today at the conclusion of ITU’s Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06) in Geneva, heralding the development of ‘all-digital’ terrestrial broadcast services for sound and television. The digitalization of broadcasting in Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Islamic Republic of Iran by 2015 represents a major landmark towards establishing a more equitable, just and people-centred Information Society. The digital switchover will leapfrog existing technologies to connect the unconnected in underserved and remote communities and close the digital divide. ...

Link:  ITU.  Thanks to David Liroff for the link.  --Dennis

The impact of wireless Internet on radio listening

Bridge Ratings is out with another interesting report, this one on the impact of emerging wireless Internet services (WiMax, et al.) on traditional radio listening.  It caught my eye because I've been advocating, so far without much success, marrying these devices with HD Radio to expand channels available to listeners via terrestrial radio.  This report suggests it will impact TSL of both terrestrial and satellite stations:

... By year 5 of in-car Wi-Fi acceptance, traditional radio can expect to see the amount of time spent listening to fall below 19 hours a week and by year 8 when we project that more than 23% of the U.S. public will have adopted wireless Internet technology in-car, weekly time spent listening to traditional radio will fall below 18 hours per week.  ¶  What about satellite radio? ¶  Satellite radio has found its greatest audience in-car but has the most to lose with wireless Internet radio reception. This study as well as previous Bridge Ratings studies conducted for the satellite radio industry, show that satellite radio subscribers consumer satellite radio at a far greater weekly rate than do listeners to traditional radio.  ¶  As wireless in-car becomes more accepted, weekly time-spent-listening to satellite radio will also be impacted. ...

Link:  Bridge Ratings.  --Dennis

Tagging and HD Radio

No, this isn't tagging in the Web sense, as in "folksonomy" (del.icio.us, et al.), but rather new capabilities built into certain HD Radio receivers that will enable listeners who are using those receivers to listen to stations that are encoding their music in a certain way to tag songs as they hear them and have those data sent to iTunes for purchase of the songs.

Two recent articles in Radio World describe the process:

From Polk, JBL Radios Combine HD-R, iPod & iTunes Tagging:

... Using Apple iTunes tagging, users can buy songs they hear on HD Radio stations. The radio stores information about the tagged songs to its memory and transfers the tags to an iPod when docked. When the consumer connects the iPod to his/her computer, iTunes automatically presents the songs in a new Tagged play-list for the consumer to preview, buy, and download. ...

Link:  Radio World.

And from ‘Go Commerce’ Available for iTunes HD-R Tagging and Analog RDS:

... Jump2Go Founder/CTO Allen Hartle told Radio World that with its proprietary technology, the company is the sole provider of the behind-the-scenes service that synchronizes a staion’s programming with the iTunes unique song identifiers that make RDS and HD Radio “tagging” possible. This is in addition to iTunes-based e-commerce fulfillment on station Web sites.  ¶  The tagging service for Apple iTunes and HD Radio begins with a station’s automation system, using BE’s The Radio Experience software relaying on-air events to the Jump2Go data center for “tagging.” The Jump2Go service assigns the unique iTunes identifier to each song and then the tag data is inserted into the IBOC bitstream. (For RDS tagging, songs get two identifying numbers, one for iTunes and another Jump2Go number that the company could use for other MP3 player song services such as the Microsoft Zune in the future, Hartle said.) ...

Link:  Radio World.

Mark Ramsey, an HD Radio skeptic, seems to think they're nuts in a post, And the good ideas keep on coming...  Link:  hear 2.0.

This does have a sort of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" feel to it, though it does provide an interesting new avenue for revenue and another incentive for people to buy HD Radio receivers.  I'm inclined to support it, though, since I'm attracted to the idea of marrying HD Radio and Internet radio in one box and we need all the incentives for people to get started in HDR that we can find.  --Dennis

Vnunet: Digital Radio iPods expected on Wednesday

Iain Thomson writes:

... a reliable industry insider has told vnunet.com that the announcement will include plans to bring digital radio to the iPod along with an option to buy music using the device.  ¶  The source said that the new iPods will be able to receive digital radio, and will include a 'buy-now' function to allow the user to download and buy tracks as they are being played. ...

Link:  vnunet.com.

However, Nick DePlume cautions:

... While it is possible the new iPod will be the first to pack some sort of wireless capability, suggestions of digital radio playback should be taken with a grain of salt. ...

Link:  Think Secret.

Thanks to John Paczkowski for both these links from, And Lo, Jobs Appeared and Said 'No, This Is the Best iPod Ever,' and It Was, and There Was Much Rejoicing.  Link:  Digital Daily. 

Count me as one of the skeptics, though I'd be happy to be wrong on this one because of the lift it would give HD Radio -- if, indeed, that's what they mean by "digital radio."  However, it's my understanding that the existing chipsets for HD Radio receivers are quite power hungry -- hence the general lack of HDR portable models in the CE marketplace today.  So making that work in an iPod form factor seems like a real stretch to me unless there has been a breakthrough in power requirements for the HDR receiver chipsets. 

On the other hand, maybe what is meant is a WiFi digital radio with some sort of streaming addressability similar to the Torian Wireless Infusion that I own.  That just might fit into that form factor.  We'll see tomorrow, I guess.

Update 5 September 2007:
OK, it's tomorrow now and, indeed, it was a WiFi radio.  It will permit users to log into iTunes directly and buy music.  And its storage is strangely tiny -- only one-tenth the size of the new iPod Classic.  See Natali T. Del Conte's, Apple Announces iPod touch with Wi-Fi.  Link:  PC Magazine. --Dennis

WOXY.com carried on WVXU-HD2

Former over-the-air commercial broadcaster WOXY, Oxford, Ohio, broadcasting only over the web as woxy.com for the past few years, returns to the air on the HD-2 channel of public radio station WVXU, Cincinnati.  It has an alternative rock format.  This may be the first such combination of non-commercial and commercial radio on one HD Radio station.  See Zachary Breedlove's, Music: (Not) Only in It for the Money.  Link:  CityBeat.  Thanks to Jack Dominic of WCET.  --Dennis

HD Radio: Why Marketing Matters

Bridge Ratings president Dave Van Dyke has some advice for U.S. broadcasters in how to market HD Radio based on the UK experience with digital radio.  Link:  Navigate the Future.  --Dennis

HD Radio vs. Internet Radio - Which is Radio's Future? - report from Bridge Ratings

Bridge Ratings has a new report on HD Radio and Internet Radio.  The answer to its title question is already Internet Radio, but that's not to say that HD Radio won't be important.  With the latter, we're only in the first inning, and if you can predict from that how the game will end from that, you're a better prognosticator than I.  My personal view is that HD Radio's future success depends on innovations that tie it more to Internet Radio than terrestrial radio -- such as putting them in the same box and seamlessly tuning from one to another. [click to enlarge images]

Back to the Bridge Ratings study.  About three in four respondents have heard of HD Radio, but that's higher in the 25-54 demo than in the 12-24 or 55+ demos.  The 12-24 demo is more interested in having an HD Radio (23%) than either the 25-54 (13%) or 55+ (2%) demos.  Not such good news for those of us in public radio and another indicator for the need to develop programming for pre-Boomers.

Link:  Bridge Ratings.  --Dennis

The New Influentials - report from Bridge Ratings

Bridge Ratings head Dave Van Dyke has a good blog to which I subscribe via RSS and from which I occasionally quote, but I can't find such a feed for the company's main site.  That's too bad, because on those occasions when I remember to check it, I usually find something helpful, such as the subject of this post.  Add a feed, please.

From the press release (click for larger image):

... It is no longer a world of mass media but rather it is a world of communities of customers and consumers. In an attempt to keep up with the changing world that the Internet has brought, the media world has embraced such things as websites to reach their customers, but it isn't enough. Consumers have gravitated to social media and that is where Influence is finding a significant home.  ¶  Influencers or Influentials are a group of very active consumers involved in "conversation marketing" where word-of-mouth is becoming a significant power in spreading dialog with customers, listeners and viewers. It means creating a conversation with your consumers in which useful information is exchanged so that both parties benefit from the relationship. ...

... In the face of technology and a changing consumer experience, the term "radio" now covers not only traditional radio (AM/FM) but also all those digital audio entertainment media that compete with terrestrial radio: Satellite radio, Internet radio, Podcasting, digital music players - even cell phones.  ¶  And because the landscape is changing so quickly and shifting in ways never before expected, radio of all colors and those that advertise on those platforms, must address the problem of audience "scatter" (See Bridge Ratings study #755), i.e. audiences are moving in multiple media dimensions and capturing their attention requires more skill than ever before.  ¶  This is where the Influentials come in. This is the subset of consumer experience which radio must attract. ...

... Among the questions, we asked about the role of traditional radio in their futures. 46% thought it was "Very important" for traditional radio to change with more relatable content. Adding "Somewhat Important" brought the score to 77%.  ¶  Only 11% thought it was "Very Important" for traditional radio to remain the same as it is today. An additional 18% thought it was "Somewhat Important". By this panel of Influentials of all ages, traditional radio has some work to do if it is to remain relevant in the near future. ...

Link:  Bridge Ratings.  --Dennis

 

New Digital Radio Rules Effective Sept. 14th

Brendan Holland has a summary of the new FCC rules concerning "HD Radio."  He writes:

• FM stations may commence digital operations without prior authority from the FCC and may use separate antennas for the digital and analog signals without the need for an STA.
     
• Stations may operate in extended digital hybrid mode, permitting additional capacity.
     
• AM stations may operate during nighttime hours.
     
• FM translators, boosters, and LPFM stations may operate digitally.

These new operational rules will become effective on September 14, and along with them the following rules regarding policy issues will also go into effect:

• Stations that chose to broadcast in digital must provide a free digital stream that simulcasts the programming of the analog channel.
     
• Stations have the flexibility to provide multiple programming streams, provide data services, or provide the highest quality audio service.
     
• Stations may lease the unused portion of their radio spectrum to third parties.
     
• The existing rules, such as EAS, political, sponsorship ID, and station identification, are extended to all the free streams of programming provided by a station. ...
  

Link:  Broadcast Law Blog.  --Dennis

The future of radio will be an "experience"

Like Mark Ramsey, I've been posting about the dramatic implications of mobile WiMAX for the radio broadcasting and satellite radio businesses.  He brings a credible research perspective to the question and I think this essay is particularly important.  He writes:

... In fact, as this new Google/Sprint deal suggests, the availability of audio entertainment wirelessly and in real-time will permanently alter the very experience and definition of radio.  ¶  That's because the portable radio-like devices will be pointless unless they are much more than redundant to radio. Like the Internet itself these new gadgets will be en ecosystem, a platform for plug-ins which are produced by programmers in every corner of the world and which add an infinite variety of functionality and customization - gadgets which enhance the radio experience in multiple sensory dimensions making it, as a result, much, much more than radio alone. ...

Link:  hear2.0.  --Dennis

Hype cycle for consumer technologies

Gartner has published its 2007 hype cycle chart for a large number of consumer technologies.   Click on image for larger version.  Note the relative positions of digital terrestrial radio (HD Radio) on the far left and digital terrestrial television (DTV) on the far right.  Via Bobbie Johnson at The Guardian Technology blog.  --Dennis

HD Radio ramping up competitive efforts

Bear Stearns hosted the Interep 2007 Radio Symposium from which Ryan Saghir quotes Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck with these takeaways and more from an iBiquity presentation:

• HD Radio is planning on offering features like enhanced PAD data to show sports scores, stock tickers, and even text-ads.
• On-demand radio, including traffic and weather
• Time-shifting capabilities with pause, record and playback functionality
• The ability to purchase music
• Subscription or opt-in services ...

... And perhaps the most significant announcement was that iBiquity envisions the HD chipset built into MP3 players, PDAs, eTablets, and Smartphones. They expect to make announcements around 2008.

Link:  Orbitcast.  --Dennis

New Media News Digest, 5/28-6/4, 2007

Sondra Russell works for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and writes the following News Digest on a weekly basis.  I think it's a very nice piece of work, but it's distributed by email only.  So she's given me permission to quote it here so it can get RSS distribution and also be seen by people outside of public broadcasting.  Her email address is srussell [at] cpb [dot] org.  --Dennis

___________________________________________

Welcome to the New Media News Digest for the week of June 4th.  For those of you who are new, I comb and curate various new media sources on a weekly basis with an eye towards issues specifically related to new media activities within public broadcasting.  I welcome comments and feedback.  If you have received this from a friend or colleague, please email me to be added to the list of upcoming mailers.  If you would like to unsubscribe, please do the same.

Thanks,

Sondra Russell

SONDRA’S SUMMARY

> The big story this week is that Radiosophy will be offering a $60 HD Radio.  Why is this, in light of everything else going on this week, the top story?  Because commercial and public broadcasters have collectively invested hundreds of millions in HD Radio conversion, while audiences have stayed away in droves.  Surveys indicate that consumers don’t see spending $150-$200 on a special radio just to get a couple extra channels of CD quality programming, especially in light of cheaper, better alternatives such as online streaming audio and satellite radio.  However, consumers might be willing to spend $60 or, if the Radiosophy announcement is just the beginning of an industry-wide price drop, $30 or $40.

> The key theme this week is disintermediation.  Up until now, those who doubted the possibility of Internet video distribution rendering the television network obsolete could argue that, at the end of the day, people don’t want to watch television on their computer.  While there have been ways to download Internet-distributed video straight to the TV for a while now, Apple has finally made it consumer-grade with their announcement this week that YouTube will be accessible directly on the television, via AppleTV.  The first beneficiary of this move?  Possibly the audiences of Venezuela’s Radio Caracas Television, who announced this week that they will broadcast via YouTube despite having had broadcast operations shut down by President Hugo Chavez.  Students protested violently, but may get their RCT after all.

> The think piece this week is another Apple announcement – as part of a re-launched Apple Music Store, Apple has added iTunes U, a portal for universities to offer filmed lectures free online.   Many public television and radio stations already offer public service content online, such as university lectures and interviews with local political figures.  Public broadcasters’ podcasts have benefited greatly from the increased visibility and easy user interface offered by the Apple Music Store.  Could pubcasters find a way to partner with Apple to distribute these other types of public service content?

New Media News Digest, May 28th– June 4th, 2007

INTERNET

Apple Offers Free Educational Content on iTunes
From Apple: "Apple today announced the launch of iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) featuring free content such as course lectures, language lessons, and campus tours provided by top US colleges and universities."

Apple Launches DRM Free Music
From Apple: "Apple today launched iTunes Plus DRM-free music tracks featuring high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings for just $1.29 per song."

EMI Signs Deal with YouTube
From the WSJ: "EMI Music, the music division of EMI Group, will make music videos and recordings available on Google's popular online-video Web site. YouTube visitors will also be able to include EMI content in their own video postings on the site."

TELEVISION

YouTube Coming to Apple TV
From Apple: "Beginning in mid-June, Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user’s widescreen TV."

Silenced Venezuelan TV station moves to YouTube
From CNN: "Radio Caracas Television, the station silenced by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has found a way to continue its daily broadcasts -- on YouTube, the popular video Web site."

Hearst-Argyle, YouTube to Share Revenue From TV Video Clips
From the WSJ: "Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., one of the nation's largest operators of local TV stations, will distribute news, weather and entertainment video to Google Inc.'s YouTube in a revenue-sharing agreement."

RADIO

$60 HD Radio
From NYT: "The cost of receiving digital AM and FM signals will drop next week as Radiosophy releases its HD100 receiver for less than $60 with a rebate."

comScore Study Reveals That Males Between the Ages of 18-24 More Likely to Download Podcasts via iTunes

From ComScore: "An analysis of the iTunes podcasting audience revealed that males represented a significantly larger share of the audience than did females.  In addition, 18-24 year olds represented a substantial share of the audience." (Thanks to Dennis Haarsager)

CBS Buys Last.FM, an Online Radio Site
From the NYT: "CBS said yesterday that it had acquired Last.FM, an online radio and social-networking site, for $280 million to expand its digital offerings. The purchase is regarded as a way for CBS to grab an audience online."

CBS buys Last.fm - and what it means

Mark Ramsey writes about the CBS acquisition of Last.fm, one of several next-generation Internet radio services that get smarter by adjusting to listener preferences:

...  Fast-forward two years and you'll see Last.fm integrated in all of CBS's radio websites which, for the first time, will enable customized versions of the analog stations you love - and whatever else your heart desires. Stations that could ultimately be available via mobile technologies. Stations that could theoretically include advertising.  ¶ It is inevitable that radio - or aspects of radio - will become personalized. ...

Link:  hear2.0.

Also see CBS Continues Interactive Strategy With Acquisition of Last.fm.  Link:  Radio World.

And Last.fm, CBS' $280 million hedge for its radio biz?  Link:  GigaOM.

Not unexpectedly, Mark sees this as bad news.   But I think that's true only if the radio industry sits back and does nothing.  Some of us will.  Some of us won't.  The relatively open HD Radio standard opens the door wide for innovation -- not to mention the Net as a new platform -- and surely some of us will step through.  Back in March, I posted a concept for a "many-to-many" radio that could easily be "socialized."  I'd agree with Mark that's the right direction.  Let's get busy.  --Dennis

2007 Competitive Media Usage Overview Update

A new study from Bridge Ratings reports:

... Among Americans using these technologies, terrestrial radio continues to dominate overall market penetration for the number of people listening for five minutes or more in a typical week despite the number of options available. 93.5% of Americans still listen in an average week, while MP3 players (including iPods) reached 30% of the population.  ¶  57 million Americans listen to some form of Internet Radio in a typical week according to our interviews. Satellite radio's nearly 15 million subscribers accounts for nearly 5% of the U.S. population and HD radio reaches 450,000 weekly users. ...

Link:  Bridge Ratings.

Terrestrial Radio: The Old Dog Is Resilient

Bridge Ratings CEO Dave Van Dyke writes:

... Only HD radio can make satellite radio look good at this point. Our latest study indicates that just about every consumer whom we asked whether they were interested in purchasing an HD radio in the next six months said they weren't because they couldn't see the benefits of it. ...

... So, we're experiencing the flattening of satellite radio which will continue to experience growth but at a much slower rate than previously expected and we're seeing almost non-growth for HD radio. ...

... Terrestrial is far more resilient than many on Wall Street thought. It will still have its challenges but because of its purest benefits it will stick around for quite a while longer: It's free. It's easy to operate. Everyone has one. Everyone knows its benefits. And the public doesn't seem to mind paying for it with commercials. ...

Link:  Navigate the Future. 

Not to dispute Bridge Ratings's pessimistic data about HD Radio -- they do very good work -- but don't be so quick to discount it.  The first digital television station in the U.S. went on the air in 1996 and it wasn't until 2004 or 2005 that the first receiver that actually worked except under controlled conditions unlikely to be found in normal homes was released.  HD Radio is a comparative baby and exciting new applications that almost no consumer even knows about are rolling out over the next couple of years.  It might ultimately fail or it might be a big deal.  These early consumer studies are not indicative of anything except that it's still early.  --Dennis

Bridge Ratings: Sweat the cell phone and don't count on HD

... says Mark Ramsey, who has a good summary (link: Hear2.0) of the latest update of Bridge Ratings' digital media growth projections.  But you should check out the Bridge Ratings report directly since it's full of useful info, including:

... Internet radio continues to show the most significant growth of monthly users of those media we cover in this analysis. At the conclusion of 2006, we estimate that 24% of the U.S. population or 72 million Americans listened to on-line radio in the previous 30 days. In this newest update of the report 25% have listened in the previous 30 days. Weekly listening has also climbed with 19% of the sample listening to some form of Internet radio in the previous 7 days up to 57 million per week. ...

Link: Bridge Ratings.  Must reading.

Update:
Also see comments by Sue Schardt, We're not dead.  Link:  Schardt Media.  --Dennis

Radiosophy introduces a $99 HD Radio

Well, until August anyway.  After that, it will sell for $120, $30 less than the current price Radio Shack's Accurian.  Engadget says it's the first $99 HD Radio, but as I recall, Radio Shack briefly had a $99 introductory price on its radio last fall.  Here's the press release.  The radio will be shown at the NAB show in Las Vegas this month.  --Dennis

A many-to-many radio using HD + IP

OK, this is mostly just for fun, but fun with a point.

Broadcasting has forever been a one-to-many medium -- one transmitter, many listeners.  With production and publication tools increasingly within the reach of nearly every web user, the web is now considered to be a many-to-many medium.

As an internal exercise last fall, I wanted to describe the many-to-many concept in a way that would be easy for broadcasters to internalize, so I sketched out a concept for a "many-to-many" radio.  The result, which I've shown to a few people outside my station, was the drawing below (click to enlarge or access here).

What it depicts is a mash-up between an HD Radio and an Internet "radio."  Interestingly, the HD Radio standard makes use of an open mark-up standard called Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (more SMIL info at Wikipedia), a relative of the HTML standard that's used to build web pages.  What that means is that it would be fairly trivial to program an HD Radio to tune many more channels than the three or four that come in via the broadcast spectrum such as standard Internet addresses accessible with a second built-in radio for WiMAX or some other 3G or 4G wireless service (most cell phones today contain multiple radios in one device).  A station could transmit authorized Internet addresses (URLs) using the HD Radio's data capabilities. 

The result would be a consumer device that, for each station in a market, could tune in dozens or even hundreds of program channels.  Some of those might be in the clear, others accessible through conditional access.  Of course it would take a willing consumer electronics manufacturer to build this thing, but just about anyone with HTML skills could "breadboard" the Internet part of it.

But how would one program it?  That's where the many-to-many part comes in.  Not to mention a possible army of copyright lawyers.  One possible way to enable listeners to program their own channels would be to use RSS feeds from (in our case, public broadcasting) audio sources.  A listener-programmer could go to your web site, sign up for a "channel" (URL), select from a list of podcast feeds like NPR's or PBS's, and arrange them to suit the programmer.  When a listener tunes to a channel, the stream is triggered (unless someone else has already triggered it).  When no one is listening, it goes away.  When someone is listening again, the stream picks up where it left off.  Old episodes are replaced by new ones via the RSS mechanism.

This has the potential of burning through a lot of bandwidth, so through subscription or contribution or pay-per-access or underwriting/advertising, one would have to recover those expenses.  I'm sure there would be a number of other problems to work through, but as I said at the top, this is just for fun, right?  --Dennis

Digital Media Growth Projections - Bridge Ratings

Bridge Ratings is out with another update (19 Feb. 2007) of their projections on digital audio growth.  I've linked to earlier updates before and have found them very useful.  Note the tallest bars (red), which are terrestrial analog radio, and the next tallest bars (white), which are Internet radio.  Much more information in the release.

Click for larger image.

A related report is the 2007 Competitive Media Usage Overview based on a 3,500-person 12+ national survey.  Check out the comparative weekly TSL chart.

Other recent studies include In-Car Media Use, which shows that other in-car media -- especially cell phone usage -- have been eating into  TSL to radio since 2003.

It has also issued its 2007 Projections & Predictions,  which contains the following:

• Traditional media companies will continue to struggle to maintain their audiences.
• TVs, computers and other digital devices will begin to morph.
• Technology will make it easier to find, access and manage content.
• Digital video will drive the growth of on-line advertising.
• Advertising in digital venues will become more contextual.
• Small-screen devices will have limited appeal as a media platform.
• Marketers will make some mistakes as they move into new digital spaces.

A couple of those seem pretty obvious, but this is a quite helpful report.

There's also a new update on satellite radio.  --Dennis

HD Radio Still Taking the Rap

Tom Lowry writes:

... For 2007, the industry will sell a few HD receivers, but 10 years from now, everyone will have one. "It's that kind of thing. It will happen without a ripple," says Schadler.  ¶  But even that kind of adoption by consumers could come with hiccups. "The industry is saying this could roll out gradually like FM did," says Robert Unmacht, a partner in radio consultancy IN3 Partners. "There's one problem with that. It's called broadband."  Unmacht says he uses a Sprint broadband card in his laptop now and listens to radio streamed from the Internet when driving his car. In the coming years, he says, broadband will be delivered directly into the cars themselves. And even though radio is free, people will be willing to pay for that technology in their cars, he contends. ...

Link:  BusinessWeek.  Anyone want to take a bet on how long it will take to marry HD Radio receivers with IP-to-the-dashboard via SMIL?  --Dennis

Bridge Ratings reduces HD Radio estimates

Based on an awareness study made during December and the first week of January, Bridge Ratings has reduced its "original projections for full year 2007 HD radio sales from 2.1 million total HD radio units sold to 1.5 million."  Thanks to Mike Janssen at Current.  --Dennis

Will Digital Radio Boom in U.S.?

Dave Demerjian compares digital radio in the UK versus the US.  Link:  Wired.  --Dennis

The Radio Gypsy's Predictions for 2007

Mark Ramsey has 13 predictions for radio this year.  Good reading.  Link:  Hear 2.0.  --Dennis

HD Radio at 2007 CES

Here's a report on some of the HD Radio products shown by 20 manufacturers at this year's CES.  Link:  NAB Radio TechCheck.  --Dennis

HD Radio at CES and Products You'll See Later This Year

Leslie Stimson has this report at Radio World.  Also see the satellite radio notes at the end of the article. 

Update 22 Jan. 2007:
Here's more information from NAB RadioTechCheck [pdf].  --Dennis

New Ad Campaign Plugs High-Definition Radio

Renée Montagne writes:

The radio industry is rolling out a $250 million ad blitz to promote high-definition radio in the face of sluggish consumer demand for the HD radio devices. After all, to hear HD radio, you have to OWN an HD radio.

Hear here the NPR story.

WiFi radio stations to join battle for air supremacy

Mathew Ingram writes:

For many people, satellite radio is the latest thing in audio. Instead of listening to regular old FM, you can buy a player from Sirius or its main competitor, XM, and listen to crystal-clear radio at home or in your car, after paying about $400 or so for the player and accessories, and about $15 a month for the service itself.  ¶   Over the past year or so, however, there has been talk about a new take on another technology -- Internet radio -- that has the potential to disrupt both the world of satellite radio and good old terrestrial radio. It's called WiFi radio, or wireless Internet radio, and some say its time could be coming soon, thanks to cheaper radio chips and the increasing penetration of public wireless networks. ...

Link:  globeandmail.com.  I'm "in lust" with the Torian InFusion unit he mentions, just now coming on the market, though will wait until I read an actual review of it before ordering.  More importantly Ingram's right about the emergence of Internet radio.  He doesn't mention, though, that there are a large number of Windows Media-enabled cell phones and PDAs that can play IP radio streams.  I travel a lot and keep track of what's going playing on my stations with a 3G AudioVox PPC6700 sold under the Sprint brand.  Works great and our web staff has put up a mobile-friendly version of our web site, mobile.nwpr.org (above) to make it easier for use on these devices.  I'm told that the 2008 CES, now only 13 months off, will feature WiMAX dashboard receivers.  We ought to be figuring out how to mate these with HD Radio.

Thanks to David Liroff and Dave MacCarn at WGBH for the link.  --Dennis

Satellite Radio Wars

Twin Falls, Idaho is the 192nd television market and, for many years, had only one station.  A good friend of mine with a long commercial television history once described it as a place where one station would do well, but two would starve.  His remark reminds me of the satellite radio industry, which has had Wall Street woes over the past year, fueling talk of a merger (see Analyst Asserts: Strong Chance of XM-Sirius Merger in Next 18-Months).  In my view, satellite radio faces its own disruption from Internet radio -- perhaps through a HDR-IPR hybrid that could make terrestrial broadcasters into direct competitors.

Daniel Gross thinks both companies could lose.  Writing in Sirius Pain: XM and Sirius Could Both Lose the Satellite Radio Wars, he follows a good economic analysis of satellite radio with:

... The business models of expensive talent, discounted subscriptions, and heavy marketing clearly aren't sustainable for too much longer. And so it's not surprising that analysts have begun to speculate about a potential merger. A merger of equals is certainly possible, though not likely given the egos involved. More likely is a situation in which one falters significantly and the other pounces for an acquisition. A third possibility, which analysts seem unable to contemplate, is that both could fail, and somebody else could end up with both of their carcasses. ...

Link:  Slate.  Thanks to John Proffitt (KAKM/KSKA) for a tip on the Slate article.  --Dennis

UK regulator considers shutting off AM and FM radio and using spectrum for mobile TV

C. Medford writes:

Neither television nor the movies could do it, but regulators in the United Kingdom are considering the end of AM and FM radio on the grounds that they have both outlived their usefulness, and digital services could make better use of the spectrum occupied by both bands.  ¶  Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, published a statement that said many of the AM and FM licenses are up for renewal and an automatic renewal could tie up very valuable slices of spectrum for 24 years, so the time is right for a long-term decision.  ¶  So this could be goodbye for AM and FM radio as the medium that has survived the popularity of TV and movies signs off after 100 years on the air. ...

Link:  Red Herring.  Remember, in the U.K., as in the rest of Europe, digital radio is not in-band, on-channel as it is in the U.S.  Thanks to John Proffitt of KSKA/KAKM and Kurt Hanson for the tip. --Dennis

HD Radio Gets Distribution Boost, Holiday Push

FMQB reports:

The next phase of a $200 million marketing campaign for HD Radio will launch on November 13, touting Circuit City as the initiative’s first “big box” retailer. The campaign also will alert consumers to RadioShack’s HD radio rollout to new markets and the price reduction of JVC’s automotive HD radio receiver to $199. Plus, rebates of up to $50 are now available on select receiver models ...

Shooting Down Satellite Radio?

Olga Kharif writes:

The radio wars are escalating. In a one-two punch aimed at enlisting regulators to their cause, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and National Public Radio want the Federal Communications Commission to investigate alleged misdeeds by satellite radio companies XM ... and Sirius ...

Link:  BusinessWeek.  [Disclosure:  I'm on the board of directors of NPR, mentioned in the story above, and am the GM of 13 public radio stations in the Northwest.  The opinions below, as always, are my own.]

Evidence is that the satellite companies, through higher-than-legal-power FM coupling transmitters, various localization attempts, and some interesting patent applications are taking an aggressive -- some would say scofflaw -- position vis-à-vis t