[BC] The mysterious iBiquity license fee revealed?

[Rich Wood]

------ At 11:18 AM 1/24/2008, Alan Freed wrote: -------

>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.

They're missing something terribly important. They should ask the FCC 
to force SIRIUS and XM to remove all those big kiosks in stores. 
Satellite services are simply spending too much real cash (as opposed 
to "funny money" in distressed radio inventory) on their marketing. 
IBUZ marketing is, by far, the worst I've seen for a new product or 
technology in years. Nobody spends real money. Stations don't deliver 
on the promise of unique new "stations" even in markets where 
secondaries are even remotely reliable.

>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.

It's interesting that the IBUZ folks want to piggyback on the real 
marketing of both satellite services. Are they willing to chip in a 
third of the marketing costs if IBUZ is included in satellite 
receivers? You really don't have to answer that.

>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?

How can you be so cynical? This is all being done for the good of 
radio. Remember, there's an IBUZ revolution going on. Some historian 
will discover it a few centuries down the road..

Rich