[BC] The mysterious iBiquity license fee revealed?

[Alan Freed]

The entire clip is from orbitcast.com and I 
include it for context. This line is from the 
final paragraph:

"[Barrington Research analyst Jim] Goss...added 
that iBiquity is getting $5-$6 for every HD Radio 
receiver sold."



iBiquity met with the FCC... again

  Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 5:49 AM

 
Adding to the list of merger-related activity at 
the FCC recently, iBiquity Digital Corporation 
held yet another meeting with members of the 
Commission earlier this week, according to a 
recent FCC filing.

iBiquity CEO Robert Struble and counsel met with 
Commission Jonathan Adelstein and Rudy Brioché of 
Commissioner Adelstein's office. Their discussion 
was similar to previous meetings in that iBiquity 
expressed "concern" over competitive implications 
should the merger be approved.

Speaking of implications. iBiquity implies quite 
a bit at these meetings. From the filing:

"iBiquity raised concerns about exclusive 
arrangements between XM and Sirius and automobile 
manufacturers that could serve as a barrier to 
iBiquity's ability to sell HD Radio receivers to 
end users. iBiquity also expressed concern that 
satellite radio companies may have used subsidies 
and incentives to discourage proliferation of HD 
Radio products. iBiquity discussed its concern 
that the merger has the potential to exacerbate 
these problems."

Interesting, so now that sluggish growth we're 
hearing about is XM and Sirius' fault? Seriously? 
Remember, some studies predicted that 1.5 million 
HD Radio units would be sold in 2007 (and that 
was reduced from 2.1 million), while other 
research firms, like Barrington Research, had 
hoped for a more conservative 1 million units.

"Our impression is that the actual unit 
sell-through was only about half that total," 
said Barrington Research analyst Jim Goss. That's 
roughly 500,000 units for the entire year if your 
math is rusty.

So the burden of that failure is now being placed 
on satellite radio's mystical "incentives" that 
somehow "discouraged" the sale of HD Radios. That 
is, despite HD Radio being all over CES this 
year, and being included in new tabletop radios 
that forgo XM in favor of iTunes Tagging support. 
Yeah, I can definitely see proof of iBiquity's 
accusations there.

iBiquity's solution to these "concerns" of course 
hasn't changed since last month - they just want 
the government to require that HD Radio 
technology be included in every satellite radio 
sold.

Oh, and Goss also added that iBiquity is getting 
$5-$6 for every HD Radio receiver sold. So, you 
know, requiring that HD Radio technology be 
included in every Sirius and XM unit sold has 
absolutely nothing to do with the interests of 
iBiquity. Nah... it's all "to insure a level 
competitive playing field," right?