[BC] Mobile streaming - who needs IBOC?

[Rich Wood]

------ At 10:52 AM 7/17/2006, Phil Alexander wrote: -------

>Granted, I can see several ways of solving the b/w problem, but, in that
>event, WHO PAYS FOR THE AIRTIME MINUTES? The present generation has been
>taught that commercials are a BAD thing, mostly by dull commercials and
>PD's who insist on 15, 18 or 20 "in a row" followed by interminably long
>stop sets. Obviously, an advertising model transmitted by cellular has no
>more competitive advantage over iPods than conventional broadcast. So, WHO
>is going to pay for the infrastructure expansion AND the minutes?

That's my question, also. So far, all the cellular services I'm 
familiar with work off monthly minutes or separate packages much more 
expensive than a satellite radio subscription. I was interested in 
Barry's Treo 650. However, Cingular requires a separate data service 
for that phone. The service is $39.99 and includes only email and web 
service. The Higher priced service for computer data is between 
$59.99 and $79.99 for unlimited use. The measured service is measured 
in KB. Under current plans that would give a user about 5 hours of 
listening before the minutes are used up or a bankruptcy attorney is called in.

It's clear a whole new business model will be needed. Streaming 
services (unless you're a major, major market station) cost a 
fortune. I've been involved as a Director or advisor (at WOR) to 
several of them and they're all out of business. Costs for bandwidth 
were too high. The more listeners, the higher it went. Now we have 
licensing organizations and unions all wanting a piece of the action.

broadcast.com never made money on streaming. Business services made 
it worth buying, though Yahoo bought it and shut it down. Too 
expensive. Bandwidth is much less expensive now. We just need to 
figure out how to deliver the same (broadcast) content to hundreds of 
thousands in a single stream.

Rich

Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-454-3258