October 5, 2007

Time Warner Cable Pushes Music Offering, Taps MusicNet

Time Warner Cable is now pushing a digital music offering, and tapping MusicNet on the backend. The cable giant is unveiling Road Runner Music today, a subscription and download store, and offering compatibility components as well.

That means easy music access and centralized billing, a major competitive advantage. "I have spent the better part of my career in the cable business, and to see the advances made in providing consumers with such broad access to music is very satisfying," said Alan McGlade, president and chief executive of MediaNet Digital, of which MusicNet is now a division.

In total, Road Runner Music carries a catalog of 3 million tracks, a healthy collection that leaves few gaps. In terms of pricing, subscribers will face a $9.95 monthly charge, a sum that also includes access to streaming radio channels and music videos. Portability on three different devices is allowed for an extra $5 charge. Details on content protection were not discussed, though the offering most likely features WMA-protected tracks - and iPod incompatibility.

Time Warner most recently reported a subscriber volume of 14.7 across its video, high-speed data and residential telephone properties. The launch also involves Synacor, a technology company that frequently partners with MusicNet.

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October 3, 2007

Citadel Asks Stations to Suspend Nighttime HD Broadcasts

Citadel engineer Martin Stabbert confirms to R&R that he sent out a memo to his company’s AM stations asking them to suspend nighttime HD Radio broadcasting pending further work with the technology’s developer, iBiquity, in an effort to reduce adjacent channel interference.  

Stabbert tells R&R, “We’re taking a step back to evaluate the performance and consider the feedback we’ve received.”  

Citadel stations complaining about the nighttime interference include news/talk WJR/Detroit and news/talk WABC/ New York -- both flame-throwing Class A 50,000 watt stations whose signals have massive nighttime multi-state coverage.  

In a statement to R&R, iBiquity said, "Since September 14, the vast majority of the feedback we’ve received on AM nighttime broadcasting has been positive. We understand Citadel’s caution and are working with them to understand what they are experiencing and to address their concerns." 

The FCC’s new rules governing HD radio took effect on September 14, allowing AM stations to broadcast HD at night. At the time, the FCC had resolved any of its prior concerns over interference and extended the permissible hours of in-band, on-channel (IBOC) interim operation for AM stations to include all hours during which stations are currently authorized for analog operation.

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Westwood One Comes to Terms with CBS

Westwood One announced late Tuesday (Oct. 2) that it has entered into binding agreements with CBS Radio that have been approved by WW1's board but are subject to shareholder ratification in first quarter 2008. WW1's current management, representation and other related programming agreements are set to expire on March 31, 2009.

Under the new distribution deal, CBS Radio stations will broadcast WW1 commercial inventory through March 31, 2017 in exchange for certain programming and/or cash compensation. The news-programming agreement, which provides WW1 with the exclusive national radio syndication rights to CBS Radio News, will also continue through March 31, 2017.

However, the management agreement and representation agreement between WW1 and CBS Radio will terminate. WW1 will manage its business directly and separately from CBS Radio and employ all of its officers. Employees of CBS Radio will resign from the company's board. As part of the termination of the historical arrangements between the companies, WW1 and CBS Radio are releasing certain claims they may have against each other.

In addition, WW1 will retire the existing 3 million warrants held by CBS Radio in WW1. CBS Radio has agreed to a standstill on the sale of its company common stock until Dec. 31, 2007.

"We are pleased to announce the execution of this new arrangement with CBS Radio," said David Dennis, chair of WW1's strategic review committee, which led the negotiation process with CBS Radio. "We believe the proposed transaction provides several benefits to the company and its shareholders, including continued long-term distribution of Westwood One programming and products to major-market radio stations, compensation tied to delivery of audience and an extension of non-competition provisions through March 2010."

WW1 chief financial officer Gary Yusko said, "With the negotiation process behind us, we can move forward with solidifying our financial structure and exploring initiatives to enhance shareholder value."

CBS Radio president/CEO Dan Mason said, "We're pleased to begin a new chapter in CBS Radio's long-standing relationship with Westwood One. From broadcasting local traffic across our owned stations, to CBS Radio News across the Westwood One network, CBS and Westwood create a content and distribution team that is unparalleled in the industry."
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NAB Says "FCC Approval of Sat Merger is Inconsistent

In a 10-page argument lodged with the FCC Wednesday morning (Oct. 3), the NAB says “the Commission would be discarding long-standing merger review standards if it approves this merger” between Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio.  

The NAB says now that it has had an “opportunity to review the voluminous economic analysis” filed with the FCC by the satcasters. “It is clearer than ever that the commission would be discarding long-standing merger review standards if it approves this merger,” the broadcasters’ group said. “Applicants’ strategy in this regard has not been subtle; they recognize that following the commission’s legal standards would kill the merger, so they try to kill the standards instead. The commission’s acquiescence to such an approach would be arbitrary and capricious, inconsistent with its own precedent, and set the commission’s merger review process on a risky course.”  

The NAB says that the “cornerstone to the satcasters economic analysis is the conclusion that the relevant product “market is broader than satellite radio, including other audio entertainment devices, content and services.” The NAB then refers to a report written by economist J. Gregory Sidak, a Georgetown University professor which was released Oct. 2 by the Consumer Coalition for Competition in Satellite Radio, also known as C3SR, that picks apart the satcasters’ argument that it competes in a much wider audio environment.  

C3SR is a group founded and funded by the NAB.

XM’s spokesman Chance Patterson declined to comment on the NAB’s filing, but Sirius senior VP of communications Patrick Reilly told R&R, “The NAB opposes the merger of XM and Sirius to protect AM/FM radio from competition, not to protect consumers. As more and more consumers voice their support for the merger, the more fearful of increased competition the NAB becomes and the more desperate their actions in response. NAB's misinformed and self-serving analysis is incorrect.” Reilly added, “We look forward to continuing to work with the FCC and are confident they will weigh the transaction on its merits and recognize that it is in the public interest.

Source: Radio & Records

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September 19, 2007

Small webcasters win subsidized rates from SoundExchange.  

There’s still no word on a rate agreement for commercial radio stations that stream. But SoundExchange says it has reached agreement with 24 small commercial webcasters to continue operating through 2010 with “essentially the same terms” that have existed since 1998. Political pressure appears to have helped the record labels swallow such a bitter pill. SoundExchange executive director John Stimson says “Giving small webcasters more time to build their businesses with below-market rates is something members of Congress wanted us to get done — and we have.” Small webcasters will still pay royalties of 10% to 12% of their revenue.

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September 7, 2007

New Devices Bring HD Radio to iTunes

Two new electronics devices have been announced that will allow HD Radio listeners to “tag” songs they like and then purchase and download those songs via the Apple iTunes music store. The devices, from Polk Audio and JBL, make use of Apple’s iTunes Tagging technology and will work with songs played on both primary and HD2 multicasts.

Polk Audio is introducing the I-Sonic Entertainment System 2, while JBL is launching the iHD. Both are compact desktop systems that feature HD Radio and an iPod dock with iTunes Tagging technology.

Here’s how it works: The iTunes Tag button on each device allows consumers to tag songs broadcast by HD Radio stations. Each device then 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.

Following on the heels of the announcements by Polk Audio and JBL, Clear Channel Radio said it will offer HD digital radio broadcasts for devices supporting Apple’s implementation of the HD digital radio tagging feature. Clear Channel also said it is urging all radio broadcasters to fully support the new capability.

Clear Channel Radio president and CEO John Hogan commented, “Apple has been a strong supporter of radio, previously making an FM tuner available for the iPod, and we view their support of HD digital radio as an enormous opportunity. All of our FM stations broadcasting in HD digital radio will be available on these important and unprecedented devices. With substantial gains in online and on-demand programming already under our belt, there should now be no doubt of radio’s ability to constantly evolve and embrace new technology. The iPod is not a competitor to radio – it is a collaborator in connecting with consumers on a continual basis.”

The I-Sonic ES2 will be available from select specialty retail stores, Apple stores and direct from PolkAudio.com in October 2007 for $499.  No word yet on the cost and availability of the iHD.

Source: Radio & Records

 

 

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September 6, 2007

Satellite Radio Receivers Slow Sellers

Retail sales of satellite radio receivers were down again in July for both Sirius and XM.

Bank of America analyst Jonathan Jacoby reports that Sirius continued to outsell XM at the retail level, but its sales were down 30% from a year ago. XM sales were down 32%, for a satellite radio industry decline of 31%.

Both companies have said that their primary focus now is OEM sales through car dealers to drive growth. Jacoby is projecting that retail sales will decline 15% for Q3, although he notes that current trends are worse than that.
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September 5, 2007

Japanese Digital Biz Soars in Q2

The rapidly-growing popularity of ringback tunes and mobile-based full-track downloads helped power a 23% rise in digital-music sales in Japan to 111.6 million units in the second quarter.

In value terms, digital sales -- including mobile and PC-based downloads -- rose 40% to ¥17.6 billion ($152 million) in the April-July period, according to data released today by the Recording Industry Assn. of Japan (RIAJ).

Mobile-based master-ringtone sales accumulated by the RIAJ's 46 member companies in the quarter were down 2% from the corresponding period of 2006 to 54.7 million units, for a value of ¥6 billion ($51.6 million), up 1%. However, ringback-tune sales rose 63% to 21.5 million units, for a value of ¥1.5 billion ($13.2 million), marking a 105% rise.

Sales of mobile-based full-track downloads, meanwhile, increased 113% to 25.6 million units, for a value of ¥7.8 billion ($67.6 million), up 102%.

Overall, mobile-based downloads rose 24% to 104.8 million units, for a value of ¥16 billion ($137.9 million), up 41%.

Mobile hits during the April-July quarter included female vocalist Utada Hikaru's single "Flavor of Life" (EMI Music Japan), which since the Jan. 5 release of a master-ringtone version of the track has sold some 7 million units in various digital formats, according to the label.

Universal Music Japan, meanwhile, claims that pop group GreeeeN's "Aiuta (Love Song)," which was released as a physical single on May 16, is the first single anywhere to sell a million full-track mobile downloads. The label says that sales of "Aiuta" in all digital configurations total more than 3 million units.

PC-based music downloads in Japan in the second quarter were up 14% to 6.8 million units, for a value of ¥1.3 billion ($11.2 million), up 3%.

The RIAJ defines the PC-downloads category as comprising singles, albums, mini-albums and "other related content" sold over wired networks, with albums and mini-albums counting as single units regardless of the number of tracks they contain.

The association says that although the data doesn't differentiate between sales of single tracks and albums, singles account for the overwhelming majority of download sales.

The mobile category comprises sales over wireless networks of full single tracks, ring tones, master ring tones and other related content.
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September 4, 2007

iPhone Outsells All Smartphones in July

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone outsold all smartphones in the United States in July, its first full month on sale, accounting for 1.8 percent of all U.S. mobile handset sales, research group iSuppli said on Tuesday.

ISuppli reiterated its forecast that Apple would sell 4.5 million iPhones this year, rising to more than 30 million in 2011.

The two models of the iPhone on the market sold more than Research in Motion's (RIM.TO) Blackberry series, the entire Palm (PALM.O) portfolio and any individual smartphone model from Motorola (MOT.N), Nokia (NOK1V.HE) or Samsung (005930.KS).

Sales equaled those of LG Electronics' (066570.KS) Chocolate, the most popular feature phone on the U.S. market, iSuppli said.

ISuppli classifies the iPhone as a crossover phone that competes with both smartphones, which have personal computer-like functions such as e-mail, and feature phones, which have extras such as cameras and music players.

"While iSuppli has not collected historical information on this topic, it's likely that the speed of the iPhone's rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile-handset market," iSuppli said.

"Apple achieved this in the face of numerous, well-entrenched competitors."

Most buyers of iPhones in the United States in July were male, under 35 and had a college degree, iSuppli said.

A quarter of those who bought an iPhone switched to operator AT&T (T.N), which has an exclusive service agreement for the iPhone in the United States.

The iPhone will go on sale in Europe later this year.

ISuppli gathered its data through a consumer survey of 2 million participants in the United States that it carries out online once a month.

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August 31, 2007

Amazon.com to Launch Music Service in September

Amazon.com has tentatively set a mid-September target for the launch of its music service, the New York Post report on Friday, citing sources familiar with the situation.

The store will offer songs in the MP3 format and give consumers an alternative to Apple's iTunes.

Amazon had said in the spring that it would launch such a digital store by the end of the year.

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August 28, 2007

Teenage Spending hits $179B in '06

The spending power of teenagers reached a stunning $179 billion in 2006 as the 13-19-year-old crowd lead the way on trends in fashion and cutting-edge technology, according to a report by TRU -- a subsidiary of Research International -- released as a part of An Industry White Paper by the RAB.  

The TRU study found that nearly all of teens’ income from jobs, allowances, gifts, etc., is disposable since they don’t have the obligations of mortgages, rent, medical or vet bills, and sometimes not even auto, gas or insurance payments.  

The average teen has about $180 a month in disposable income, says the report.   A study by BizRate Research finds that the top five categories to spend money on among teen girls are apparel and accessories, music, books, DVDs/videos and health and beauty products. Teen boys spend their money on video games, music, DVDs/videos, apparel and accessories and computer software. A similar 2007 study by the Harrison Group found that the top spending categories for teens of both genders are clothes, eating out, cars, movies and cellphones.  

“Teens are spending an enormous amount of money on food,” said Rob Callender, TRU trends director. “When they just want to get out of the house, they have a fairly limited number of places they can go where they feel welcome, where they can hang out, and where they don’t feel like they’re being harassed. They can’t go to a nightclub, because they’re too young. So they go to a restaurant, eat a meal and socialize.”  

In a semiannual 2007 survey by Piper Jaffray and Co., teens listed their three favorite restaurants as Starbucks, Olive Garden and Applebee’s. Meanwhile, in another study by Decision Analyst and the Hypothesis Group, the teen participants chose Subway, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Olive Garden and Pizza Hut as their top five restaurant chains.  

And brand names are important. Most teens say they “stick with a few of the brands they really like,” particularly when it comes to computer equipment, shoes, MP3 players, cellphone service and clothes. “Individual brands earning high marks among the teen consumers included Apple’s iPod, American Eagle Outfitters, Axe, Baby Phat, Facebook, Google, Hollister, MTV, MySpace, Vans and YouTube,” the survey reports. Asked for their preferences in clothing brands, researchers heard names such as Wal-Mart, Target, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Levi’s, Gucci, Armani and Tiffany’s.  

And there was one clear winner.  

“Nike has been an absolute phenomenon in our research,” reported Callender. “For as long as we’ve measured our ‘coolest brands,’ Nike has never failed to finish first. It’s been a juggernaut in an otherwise fairly dynamic set of data. But Nike’s success can actually paint kind of a false picture of how teens deal with brands. You can’t necessarily assume that once you’ve put out a good product that it’s always going to be on top. Nike is the exception to the rule.”  

Callender continued, “Teens actually tend to cycle through brands in a way that isn’t representative of what Nike has been able to achieve. One of the main reasons behind their success is that the brand offers consistency as well as constant innovation; they’re always delivering something new for their customers, but they maintain their consistency.”

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August 27, 2007

SoundExchange, Satellite Radio Discussions Continue

Over the past few months, SoundExchange has been wrangling over internet radio royalty rates. But the label and artist representative has also been discussing future rate structures with the satellite radio industry. In June of this year, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio entered proceedings with the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), an arm of the Library of Congress. According to recent filings posted by Sirius, a rate proposal of 0.89 percent of total satellite subscription revenue was initially floated. That has now been amended to a rate of $1.20 per copyrighted sound recording for 2007, subject to increases or decreases based on subscriber gains or losses.

The satellite renegotiation was first sparked in the fall of the last year, at which point SoundExchange pointed to a drawn-out, multi-month process. The organization also proposed a flat, 10 percent revenue payment from the satellite groups, though reports has since pointed to far higher demands. SoundExchange may be empowered by a favorable decision on webcaster rates recently offered by the CRB, a result that has framed a number of post-decision negotiations with internet broadcasters. "They just asked for something really high and actually got it," one major label executive noted. SoundExchange recently resolved a number of royalty-related disputes with larger internet broadcasters, and formally floated discounted terms to smaller webcasters.

Source: Digital Music News

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August 24, 2007

SNL Kagan Releases New 10-Year Wireless Projections

In a just-released study, SNL Kagan estimates that 84% of the US population, including consumer, business and double users, will have mobile phones by the end of 2007, with this percentage surging past 100% by 2013.

SNL Kagan's research also shows that US cell phone subscriptions will grow at a rate of about 3% per year over the next decade versus total population growth of only 1%, despite decreasing net additions as 100% penetration is approached. These projections anticipate increased data use, including text, Web and video, which could be accelerated by new player business models where multimedia services get partially subsidized by advertising, similar to the approaches just starting to be tested by Google, YouTube and others.

SNL Kagan expects total industry average revenue per user (ARPU) to grow at an inflation-paced compound annual growth rate of 1.5% over the next 10 years, from $52.38 today to $61.09 by 2017. Industry hopes run much higher for data ARPU, which is already in the high single digits and grew a significant 45% from the first quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2007 — from $5.92 to $8.58.

"If carriers can hold onto their position in the revenue chain, data is poised to give them a second growth spurt," says SNL Kagan senior analyst Sharon Armbrust. "While subscriber units and voice revenue will inch along, we expect data revenue to grow at a compound annual 14% rate over the next 10 years, rising to at least 22% of service revenue, compared to under 10% today."
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August 23, 2007

DiMA Strikes Deal with SoundExchange

Following top-level negotiations this morning, SoundExchange and DiMA-member webcasters have announced that they've reached an agreement to cap minimum "per-channel" fees to $50,000 per company per year. And while webcasters gained no further ground in the CRB-determined royalty rates, a DiMA spokesperson tells RAIN that negotiations will continue.

Webcasters conceded to providing full "census" reporting on the music they play within 6 months; and, while they will not be forced to implement specific anti-"streamripping" software, the webcasters agreed to form an on-going joint study committee with SoundExchange to examine the issue.

Source: Radio & Internet Newsletter

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August 22, 2007

Report: Piracy Has Cost U.S. $12.5 Billion

A new study released today by the Texas-based Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) estimates that global piracy of recorded music has cost the United States $12.5 billion in economic output and 71,060 jobs annually.

Wal-Mart Selling Digital Music Free Of Copy Curbs

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday that it was now selling digital music downloads on its Web site without the customary copy-protection technology that limits where consumers can play the songs.

Rolling Stones Roll Out DRM-Free Albums

London-based 7digital has become the first digital media delivery company to make available EMI's Rolling Stones catalog as DRM-free MP3s.
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August 21, 2007

MTV Networks, RealNetworks & Verizon Join Forces

MTV Networks, RealNetworks and Verizon Wireless have joined forces to create a new, integrated digital music service, which will replace the services each company currently offers.

The core of the new offering is a joint venture between RealNetworks and MTV, under which the two will merge their respective digital music services into one. The joint venture will be called Rhapsody America, and the combined service will retain the Rhapsody name.

RealNetworks will own 51% of the new company, with MTV owning the remaining 49%. Under the terms of the deal, MTV will commit $230 million over five years for “hard advertising” purposes, as well as include “free” promotions in MTV programming and other integrated marketing efforts.  


The move marks the end of MTV's Urge service. The Urge.com Web site now redirects to Rhapsody and existing Urge subscribers can now use their same login information to access the Rhapsody service. In the coming weeks and months, Urge subscribers will be asked to replace their existing Urge program -- currently embedded in Windows Media Player 11 -- with Rhapsody's software.

However that's not to say the Urge experience goes away. Michael Bloom, who oversaw MTV's music service, will serve as GM of the venture, and Rhapsody will absorb much of Urge's editorial staff, playlists, programming and music recommendation services. Although Urge struggled to attract much attention from consumers, critics praised the service's blogs, reviews and recommendation services.

The result of the integration will be a complete transformation of the existing Rhapsody service. Rhapsody is not simply providing the back-end technology to a new MTV service like what it does with Best Buy's digital music store. Rather, it is creating an entirely new service that both Rhapody and Urge subscribers will share. The new service will also replace Verizon's digital music offering.

The VCast Music store, which allows users to purchase and download tracks from mobile phones, is based on technology from a company called WiderThan, which RealNetworks acquired last year. The service delivers one copy of a purchased song to the mobile phone, and another to the user's computer. Verizon customers can also buy music directly from their computer if they wish from a Verizon-branded service, which recently scored exclusive rights to the entire AC/DC catalogue.

Under this deal, Verizon will replace this existing PC-based service with the new Rhapsody client. Songs purchased from Verizon phones will then appear on the Rhapsody online service as well. Additionally, Verizon plans to release mobile phones compatible with the Rhapsody service so users can transfer subscription music to their devices as well.

In time, Rhapsody and Verizon hope to let wireless users download music on a subscription plan over the air as well, with the monthly Rhapsody fee added to the Verizon bill. However, sources at both companies say the technical and billing hurdles associated with such capability likely won't be resolved for at least a year.

All parties involved are planning a strong marketing push behind the new venture, kicking off Sept. 9 during the MTV Video Music Awards show.

Source: Billboard.biz

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August 21, 2007

SoundExchange Has Discounted Rate Agreement for Small Webcasters

SoundExchange has started sending formal offers to qualified small webcasters that would allow them to continue operating through 2010 under most of the terms of 1998's Small Webcaster Settlement Act (SWSA), the company announced Tuesday (Aug. 21).

Qualified small commercial webcasters (defined as those earning $1.25 million or less in total revenues) would be guaranteed the same rates through 2010 that they have received since 1998 for the use of sound recordings owned by SoundExchange members. Sound recordings of non-members would still be subject to the new rates.

The Copyright Royalty Board on March 2 raised statutory webcast royalties to .08 cents per performance in 2006, rising to .19 cents by 2010, with a minimum annual fee of $500 per streamed channel. In July, SoundExchange agreed not to enforce the higher royalty rates, which went into effect on July 15, as long as good-faith negotiations continue.

As part of this new agreement, small webcasters would pay royalty fees of 10%-12% of revenue. SoundExchange says the proposal also includes a "usage cap to ensure that the subsidy is used only by webcasters of a certain size who are forming or strengthening their businesses."

Small webcasters have until Sept. 14, 2007 to accept the agreement. Those who do not will be responsible for paying the new rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board.In its statement, SoundExchange said that while it "can extend this offer only on behalf of its members," it "ultimately hopes for an industry-wide resolution" that would be implemented by the Copyright Royalty Board.

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August 20, 2007

More than 25% of Brits now listen to digital radio.

The RAJAR ratings consortium offers its first glimpse into the penetration of digital radio and it shows that in the U.K. – which took a completely different approach to digital – the technology’s fueling an upsurge in listenership. The Telegraph newspaper quotes Digital Radio Development Bureau’s Ian Dickens saying that older listeners in particular like digital: “They find it is much easier to use than traditional radio, because they don’t have to remember the frequency of their favorite station and are no longer frightened about losing it.”

These figures represent listening to digital-only radio which includes DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), Digital Television and the Internet).

The traditional U.K. radio dial has never sported the variety of signals of even the average U.S. small market, and digital has meant many more signals are now available. But here’s one trend that is visible on both sides of the Atlantic: the Telegraph says “The RAJAR figures also showed that mobile phones are replacing traditional radio boxes.” One in 11 mobile phone owners over the age of 15 “now use the gadget to listen to the radio.” Interestingly, podcasting – which hasn’t gotten much buzz here in the U.S. lately – is rising quickly in the U.K.

Souce: Radio-Info.com

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August 17, 2007

Analysts Report Positive on Terrestrial Radio Streams

People are going on the Internet and listening to terrestrial radio streams in droves. It’s hot, it’s happening and it’s now. And if you think that’s coming from some radio company-hired flack, think again.

The analysts at JP Morgan on Friday (Aug. 17) morning report that “Terrestrial operators drive year-to-year growth for total unique visitors. With growth of close to 27% year over year, the terrestrial group more than offset an 8% decline for the Internet pure plays (driven by tough comps) to drive a 4% year-to-year increase for all of internet radio.”
  
In their 10-page “Internet Radio Scorecard” for June 2007, analysts John Blackledge and Aaron Chew say, “Internet radio has experienced solid gains in unique visitors since 2006, up over 2% per month, with terrestrial operators up 5% per month during that time period.”  

“Unique visitors to Internet radio increased 4% in June 2006, both sequentially and on a year-over-year basis,” reports the duo. “Though the terrestrial operators experienced 1% sequential growth from May's levels, the improvement was largely driven by a 7% sequential growth for the Internet pure plays.”  

But it doesn’t happen on the cheap. The report notes that “these gains were driven in part by the terrestrial operators investing more capital into their digital/online operations. While it is difficult to quantify among the capital expenditures for the terrestrial radio operators into their Internet operations, we believe the operators are investing in and developing their Web sites and adding rich content and webstreaming functionality to attract more users in order to drive advertising revenue.”  

Clear Channel claims the largest total Internet audience with about 17% of an estimated audience of 27 million unique users. “We believe Clear Channel’s growth is instrumental in driving growth for terrestrial operators as a whole,” say Blackledge and Chew, who arrived at their conclusions using data from CommSource Media Matrix and making JPMorgan calculations. But Clear Channel Internet sites saw a 3% decline in June which “likely restrained growth for the terrestrial group as a whole.” NPR didn’t help either with a 19% slip, CBS declined 6%, and, according to the report, traffic at the Greater Media sites in Detroit and Philadelphia fell almost 30%.  

So who made up the difference?  

"The two bright spots for the terrestrial group during the quarter were at Citadel, where unique visitors increased close to ninefold to 1.2 million as its Internet initiatives began to take hold,” finds the report. Also growing at a brisk pace was “Last FM (recently acquired by CBS), where unique visitors grew 9% to 2.5 million; and at Radio Disney (still owned by DIS), which was up close to 16%.”

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August 17, 2007

Radio’s royalty bill could be a lot less than first thought.

The record industry is pointing to the rates paid by Western European countries as a model for what American stations could be faced with — and it’s significantly lower than initial estimates. While U.S. stations presently pay no performance royalty, stations in Europe pay from a high of 5.58% to a low of 2.35%.

If those rates are applied to America’s $20 billion commercial radio industry, the high-low range would be $1.116 billion to $470 million. That’s considerably less than some estimates of $2 to $7 billion. “That’s a gross over exaggeration” says MusicFirst coalition spokesman Tod Donhauser. He says “The NAB is using scare tactics to convince stations that it would be bad for them.”

But NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton says “Given the fact that free radio airplay of music has generated billions in revenue for the mostly foreign-owned record labels, it’s preposterous for the RIAA to suggest a performance tax, period. It matters not whether the money grab would be $7 billion, $2 billion or 470 million.” Opposition among radio operators is fierce. Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins says “All they’re doing is making it more difficult for us to survive. If they’re going to do that they should free us up to run these as commercial enterprises as opposed to stewards of the public service.” He says radio should charge the record labels for “shelf space” just like Wal-Mart does “particularly if we’re going to have to pay additional dollars.” No legislation has been introduced in Congress to do away with the exemption, but Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) is expected to submit a bill after the August recess. “There’s a growing interest in Congress about this issue to address the disparity,” says Donhauser.

Source: Inside Radio

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August 9, 2007

Universal Music Group Ramps Up DRM-Free Testing

Universal Music Group, which has the largest market share of all the major labels at an estimated 26% of the global market, unveiled a plan to test the sales of digital music without digital rights management (DRM) on a massive scale.

From now until January, UMG will begin selling "thousands" of albums and individual tracks without DRM via such digital outlets as Rhapsody, the Rhapsody-powered Best Buy store, Wal-Mart, PureTracks, and Transworld, as well as the Amazon.com service once it goes live.

The test will also include sales conducted from all participating artist and label-branded websites. Additionally, UMG will use Google’s AdWords search-based advertising program to drive digital music purchases through a social commerce site called gBox.

Noticeably missing from the test is Apple’s iTunes.

In most cases, the DRM-free tracks will sell for the same cost as their protected counterparts, although in a variety of file sizes depending on the retailer.

UMG says the test is designed to measure various factors such as consumer demand, price sensitivity and piracy effects of selling unprotected files versus those locked by DRM.

One of the most challenging aspects of selling music in digital form is the matter of interoperability. The iPod is the dominant digital music device in the market today, but only music purchased on iTunes is compatible with it. Tracks purchased via competing services can’t be played on the iPod, and as such those services—and the digital download market in general—has suffered.

EMI Music Group was the first to embrace DRM-free digital sales, eliminating the restriction from its entire catalog. Starting with iTunes, EMI spent the summer rapidly striking deals with various digital outlets to sell DRM-free tracks, at a higher bit-rate, for 30 cents more per track than lower-quality DRM-protected files.

While not exactly jumping on the anti-DRM bandwagon, UMG’s test shows the label is at least running closely behind it.

"Universal Music Group is committed to exploring new ways to expand the availability of our artists' music online, while offering consumers the most choice in how and where they purchase and enjoy our music," said UMG chairman and CEO Doug Morris in a statement announcing the move.

"This test, which is a continuation of a series of tests that UMG began conducting earlier in the year, will provide valuable insights into the implications of selling our music in an open format."

While UMG may have dabbled with DRM-free tracks in the past, this test represents a major escalation. Instead of dipping its toes in the DRM-free waters with relatively obscure or emerging acts, UMG is committing some of its biggest sellers and front-line releases to the effort.

This includes such acts as Fall Out Boy, Amy Winehouse, 50-Cent, Black Eyed Peas, Daddy Yankee and Common, whose new release “Finding Forever” currently reigns as the No. 1 album in the country this week.

The gBox/AdWords element is perhaps the most interesting element of the trial. Fans using Google to conduct Web searches for participating artists will see a link to buy that act’s music via a sponsored link in the results page. The gBox service is a sort of music widget developed by Navio Systems that lets music fans sell music by their favorite artists on their blogs, websites and other sources, adding a viral nature to the effort.
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August 7, 2007

Record labels’ performance royalty could take 10% to 35% of radio’s total revenue.

Wachovia analyst Marci Ryvicker comes up with an astounding total figure - $2 billion to $7 billion. It’s so big, she says “we find it highly unlikely that the RIAA will be successful” because “we cannot see how taxing an already-struggling industry will provide for better programming” or be “in the best interests of the public.” To give you some sense of the proportion here, radio’s annual revenues have been glued at around the $20 billion mark since about 2000. Forcing music-playing stations to pay even $2 billion to fund a new performer’s royalty would send investors toward the exits. And as Cox Radio’s Bob Neil said last Thursday, some stations would just quit playing music altogether – and that certainly isn’t in the best interest of musicians. I still think this comes down to emotions, and the MusicFIRST Coalition is going to have some highly effective speakers – musical icons – on its side. NAB had better keep coming up with more arguments, beyond just “we helped make them stars.”

Source: Radio-Info.com

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July 31, 2007

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (SIRI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Tuesday posted a narrower quarterly loss that beat expectations as it added more subscribers and spent less to sign them to its pay radio service, sending shares up 3 percent.

Sirius, the No. 2 satellite radio service which has agreed to purchase bigger rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XMSR.O: Quote, Profile, Research), said its second-quarter net loss was $134.1 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with a loss of $237.8 million, or 17 cents, a year earlier.

Wall Street had expected the company to post a loss of 10 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue at Sirius, whose lineup includes the National Football League, shock jock Howard Stern, lifestyle guru Martha Stewart and the Catholic Church, jumped 51 percent to $226.4 million from $150.1 million.

The average analyst forecast was for revenue of $228.3 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

Sirius said it added 561,493 subscribers in the quarter, and ended with 7.1 million subscribers. That compares to 8.25 million at XM, which started its service a year before Sirius.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department are reviewing the deal that would combine the only two providers of satellite radio service in the United States.

The results came about a week after Sirius Chief Executive Mel Karmazin said XM and Sirius would offer subscription plans costing up to 46 percent less than current offerings. The move was largely seen as a bid to allay regulators' concerns that a merger would raise prices and limit choices.

Sirius said its second-quarter subscriber acquisition costs per gross subscriber addition fell to $108 from $131 a year earlier.

However, its monthly churn, or the average rate at which customers leave, rose to 2.1 percent from 1.8 percent last year, while average revenue per user slipped to $10.71 from $11.16.

Sirius said it expects to end the year with revenue "approaching $1 billion" and over 8 million subscribers.

Analyst on average expect the company to have revenue of $948.7 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

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July 26, 2007

NAB President Slams XM, Sirius Programming Promises

Source: Allaccess.com

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July 26, 2007

XM Increases Net Subs by 338,000 in Q2

XM Satellite Radio on Thursday (July 26) reported ending the second quarter with $277 million in revenues, up 22% from the $228 million it reported during the same period in 2006. XM's 2007 second quarter net loss narrowed to $176 million, representing a 23% improvement compared to the 2006 second quarter net loss of $229 million.  

The Washington, D.C.-based company had a net loss of $175.7 million, or 57 cents a share during the three-month period ending June 30, compared to $229.1 million, or 87 cents a share, in Q2 2006. The Q2 2007 loss included a 12-cent per share charge related to an investment in Canadian Satellite Radio. A Thomson Financial poll of analysts called for a 44-cent per share loss.  

XM said it ended the quarter with more than 8.25 million subscribers compared to 6.90 million subscribers in the prior year period. The company said it recorded 942,000 gross subscriber additions during Q2 and had 338,000 in net subscriber additions compared to 926,000 gross additions and 398,000 net subscriber additions in the same period in 2006. Chairman Gary Parsons sounded almost relieved during a morning conference call when he noted that it was “the first quarter in over a year where gross additions were up over the previous quarter -- it was a tough year of quarters.”  

The company also said the cost of getting new subscribers or subscriber acquisition costs (SAC), increased to $75 compared to $67 in the second quarter of 2006. XM said that Q2 2007 SAC included $10 for inventory -- related charges as well as a $10 increase as a result of continued new vehicle growth from increased production by its newer automotive partners.  

"During the second quarter, XM's revenue grew and losses narrowed. XM added more automotive gross subscriber additions than during any quarter in the company's history," said Hugh Panero, XM’s CEO. "XM's partners include the nation's largest and fastest-growing automakers and XM is well positioned for this segment to provide sustained subscriber growth as production of XM-equipped vehicles ramps up for the 2008 model year and beyond."  

XM reports having $275 million in cash compared to $218 million at the end of December 31, 2006. It also has full availability of its $400 million credit facilities resulting in total available liquidity of $675 million.

During the opening of the morning teleconference with analysts, Panero recalled how he joined the company nearly a decade ago when XM “was a PowerPoint presentation” and there was “scant belief than anyone would pay for radio.” He said he was heartened by the recent consumer response to the Sirius-XM merger proposal that showed 4-to-1 respondents in favor of the merger “reaffirming out view that the merger is in the public interest and should be approved.” On Tuesday, Panero announced that he would leave XM, handing his authority over to president/COO Nate Davis until the merger is approved and then closed at year’s end or early next year, making way for Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin to take the reins.  

Said Panero, “the merger has progressed to a significant level, hit a number of milestones… and it was time to move on.”

Source: Radio & Records

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July 24. 2007

Apple Shares Fall on Initial iPhone Numbers

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) fell 4 percent on Tuesday after AT&T Inc (T.N) issued initial subscriber numbers for customers of Apple's iPhone that were below analyst estimates.

Shares of Apple were off $5.70 to $138.02 on Nasdaq after AT&T, the exclusive service provider for iPhone, said it signed up 146,000 iPhone customers as subscribers in the first two days of iPhone sales, well below analyst estimates for sales.

Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves said that while iPhone sales figures for coming months would be more telling than the first few days, AT&T's number had disappointed investors as some analysts estimated sales "north of 500,000."

Hargreaves had himself estimated 400,000 iPhone sales for the first two days, he said.

"The difference (between sales and activations) is going to be what was sold on eBay or activations that didn't happen immediately. There were some problems with activations but from what we heard it was minimal," the analyst said.

Apple and AT&T had attracted long lines of gadget enthusiasts to their stores when the much-hyped iPhone first went on sale in the evening of June 29.

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July 16, 2007

DiMA Accepts SoundExchange Royalties Cap Offer

The Digital Media Association on Saturday (July 14) confirmed in a letter to SoundExchange that it will accept SoundExchange's offer to cap the per-channel minimum royalty fee for webcasters at $50,000 annually through 2010. As R&R reported earlier, the offer was made at a Thursday (July 12) House Energy and Commerce Committee round-table meeting hosted by Rep. Ed Markey.

DiMA represents major webcasters including Yahoo!, Live365, AOL, RealNetworks and Pandora.

DiMa executive director Jonathan Potter said, "DiMA appreciates SoundExchange's acknowledgement that the minimum-fee issue is critical to our member companies. With the minimum-fee issue off the table, our companies are hopeful that we can quickly meet with SoundExchange to negotiate a fair royalty rate that will support a sustainable business environment for Internet radio."

The Copyright Royalty Board on March 2 raised statutory webcast royalties from .07 cents per performance to .08 cents in 2006, rising to .19 cents by 2010, with a minimum annual fee of $500 per streamed channel. Late last week SoundExchange agreed not to enforce the higher royalty rates, which had been set to go into effect on Sunday (July 15), as long as good-faith negotiations continue.

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June 21, 2007

Hearing Called on CRB Royalty Rate Increase

The House Committee on Small Business will hold a hearing entitled "Assessing the Impact of the Copyright Royalty Board Decision to Increase Royalty Rates on Recording Artists and Webcasters."

The hearing will examine the decision to raise rates, the impact it will have on Internet Radio, and the challenges of providing fair compensation for copyright owners while maintaining a business environment that allow small Webcasters to thrive.

The committee will hear testimony from various Internet Radio outlets, as well as music artists that stand on both sides of the issue.

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June 20, 2007

Source: Billboard.biz

Reports have surfaced suggesting MySpace parent company NewsCorp is considering trading its ownership of the popular social networking service to Yahoo in return for 30% of the combined company.

Based on Yahoo's current value of $37 billion, that would translate to an $11 billion payout for the transaction, the Times of London estimates, offering a hefty return on NewsCorp's original $580 million acquisition of MySpace in 2005. The Times says that NewsCorp is also dangling its shares in game network IGN.

It is as yet unclear whether yesterday's departure of Yahoo CEO Terry Semel could cloud the future of such a deal.

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June 12, 2007

Bridge Ratings today released its current Internet advertising projections for 2007. With a strong first quarter of nearly $4.7B spent on all Internet advertising, the company is now projecting full year 2007 Internet Ad revenues to surpass $19 billion.

 

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June 6, 2007

Internet's Ad Share Surpasses Radio

Internet's share of ad dollars surpasses radio for the first time. Radio's share of advertising revenues held flat in the first quarter with 6.6% of the spending. But for the first time the Internet had a larger share of 7.7%. TNS Media says radio is now fifth - behind TV, magazines, newspapers and the Web.

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June 5, 2007

Bearish Album Sales Patterns Persist, US-Based Slide Continues

US-based weekly album sales dropped a modest 3.2 percent over the previous period, and a gaping 16.2 percent over the same week last year. The figures, recently published by Nielsen Soundscan, cover the week ending May 27th. On a cumulative basis, yearly albums sales remain far behind comparable, 2006 levels, a problem that shows little signs of subsiding. Specifically, aggregated sales recently surpassed 185.4 million, about 16.6 percent less than year-ago figures of 222.4 million. The gulf suggests that second quarter sales are not recovering, and first half figures are likely to mirror recent first quarter returns.

Meanwhile, paid download sales continued their heady increases, moving to 340.2 million for the year, up more than 50 percent over comparable volumes last year. For the week, digital tracks topped 15.1 million, up 42.1 percent over the same week last year.

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June 4, 2007

Local Online Advertising Explodes

Local online advertising is expected to hit $7.5 billion this year, a 31.6% increase over 2006, according to new estimates scheduled for release Tuesday (June 5) by Borrell Associates.

While local ad growth began to slow in 2005, it is still growing faster than national online advertising, which is expected to see a 20.7% increase to $22.1 billion.

Newspapers will continue to pull the dominant share of local online advertising at 35.9%, followed by pure-play Internet companies (such as Google, Yahoo and Monster) at 33.2%. Yellow pages are  expected to control 11.7% of ad dollars. Local print magazines have 9.2%. TV stations have 7.7% and radio stations, 2.2%.

For 2007, newspaper online ad revenue is expected to reach $3.2  billion, while TV stations will pull in $602 million and radio stations, $189 million. "If newspapers are engaged in an online feeding frenzy and TV stations have set out on the hunt, radio stations are rubbing their sleepy heads and wondering what's for breakfast," the Borrell report noted. Although radio stations have doubled their share of the local  online ad market, Borrell pointed out that the growth has come at the hands of a few aggressive operators such as Cox Radio, Emmis  Communications and Clear Channel.

During the past year, companies making a play for local online  advertising focused on building their organizations to capture more dollars; several media companies appointed corporate-level interactive executives. Some of the largest local sites now employ two dozen or more online-only sales people.

Most local media operators are generating 2% to 5% of their revenue from Web operations. Some media companies, most notably newspaper companies, are getting more. Online ad revenue represents 10.7% of the Washington Post's gross revenue; the New York Times and Morris Communications, 8.1%; Scripps, 7.0%; and McClatchy, 6.6%.

Source: Mediaweek.com

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May 30, 2007

CBS announced Wednesday (May 30) that it has paid $280 million in cash to acquire the global, community-based music discovery network Last.fm, which the company says has more than 15 million active users in more than 200 countries.  

Working with the CBS management team, Last.fm founders Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel and Richard Jones will continue to run the online network, which they founded in 2002.  

"Last.fm is one of the most well established, fastest growing online community networks out there," said CBS Corporation president/CEO Les Moonves. "They have a great management team that understands how to build an engaged and passionate community where users learn, discover and share music globally. Their demographics also play perfectly to CBS’s goal to attract younger viewers and listeners across our businesses. Last.fm adds a terrific interactive extension to all of our properties and also is a huge step in CBS Corporation’s overall strategy of expanding our reach online to transition from a content company into an audience company."

One obvious synergy CBS plans to explore is between Last.fm and the CBS Radio division. “Music has the unique ability to unite large groups of people and engage them around a shared passion. CBS Radio has given us a powerful way to create such communities for decades. With Last.fm, we’re adding a next-generation platform to allow audience to communicate with us and each other as never before,” Moonves added.

-Radio & Records

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May 23, 2007

Sprint to Offer Pandora Streaming Audio

Sprint Nextel Corp has teamed up with Pandora Media to deliver personalized streaming audio to its mobile phone users. The music service has attracted 6.9 million users since launching in November 2005.

The Sprint/Pandora service is now available free for the first 30 days of use but will cost an additional $2.99 per month with a Sprint Data plan. Sprint is the first mobile carrier to offer Pandora, but if the Oakland-based startup has its way, other cellular networks will follow suit.

Read the Forbes article here.

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May 22, 2007

SoundExchange Extends Offer to Small Webcasters

SoundExchange today offered to extend to small webcasters through 2010 the terms of prior legislation known as the Small Webcaster Settlement Act (SWSA) with some minor modifications. The 2002 act that sunset in 2005 had set temporary below-market royalty rates for small Internet radio stations in order to provide them additional time to build their businesses. SoundExchange’s offer to extend the core SWSA terms represents a continued subsidy for these small webcasters in the form of lower payments to artists and content owners. Read news release here.

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May 22, 2007

Text messaging is quickly going beyond teenagers.

The average age of a texter is 38. And 40% of American mobile phone users say they sent a text message during the month of March. And 15% sent a photo. 10% used their phone to access the Web for things like news, email and gaming. The bottom line – people are becoming more familiar with their cell phone’s applications. And that presents opportunities for radio.

Source:M:Metrics

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May 14, 2007

Radio listeners in 15 new markets now have access to HD2 multicast programming. According to a Monday, May 14 announcement from the HD Digital Radio Alliance, HD Radio technology has reached the nation’s top 100 markets.

This milestone comes less than 18 months after the Alliance launched a $200 million ad campaign -- later increased to $250 million -- to accelerate HD Radio’s adoption by consumers, which has been sluggish compared to the eagerness of broadcasters to launch HD2 channels.

The new markets, followed by their rank, are Gainsville, Fla., 86; Charleston, S.C., 87; Greenville, N.C., 88; Columbia, S.C., 89; Daytona Beach, Fla., 90; Des Moines, Iowa, 91; Spokane, Wash., 92; Mobile, Ala., 93; Wichita, Kan., 94; Madison, Wis., 95; Colorado Springs, Colo., 96; Melbourne, Fla., 97; Tri Cities, Tenn., 98; Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla., 99; and Lexington, Ky., 100.

Broadcasters are also adding a variety of formats to the existing list of HD2 multicasts. Some of the formats include ABC Radio’s “e-Spanol,” -- a combination of hard rock and Latino music; Bonneville’s “iChannel,” which plays independent and unsigned artists; “Young Punk – Next Generation Alternative” from Emmis; and Entercom’s channels for rock albums from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, “Passport” and “Subterranean.”

According to president and CEO of Greater Media, Peter Smyth, “HD Radio and HD2 multicast formats selections that the Alliance has helped to allocate will broaden the horizons of radio, enabling us to provide unique programming and compelling content, such as Deep Trax, Live Rock, Irish music and other new, exciting formats.” He continued, “The additional channels will give young artists the opportunity and ability to be heard on the airwaves.”

When the Alliance formed in December 2005, only one HD Radio receiver model was available in stores. Today, more than 50 HD Radios receivers for the home and car can be purchased in national retail outlets, including RadioShack, Best Buy and Wal-Mart.

And, in the next 18-24 months, 11 automotive OEM’s (original equipment manufacturers) will list HD Radio receivers as an optional feature on 55 models.

BMW currently offers HD Radio as a factory-installed option in all of its models. HD Radio receivers will also be available in Hyundai and Jaguar’s premium sedan product line in 2008.

Source: Radio & Records

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May 11, 2007

$48M Lawsuit Headed for Sirius

Sirius admits its employees told receiver makers to flout the FCC’s interference rules. Broadcasters
have been carping about the interference to terrestrial stations for ages — and a year ago FCC finally opened an investigation. Now Sirius comes clean. It admits that “Sirius personnel requested manufacturers to produce Sirius radios that were not consistent with the FCC’s rules.” They’re not disclosing which employees were the culprits — or how high in the chain of command it goes. Sirius also isn’t saying if any of those employees have been fired. The company says it only learned of the mistakes during an internal review and says it’s taking “significant steps to ensure that this situation does not happen again.” One receiver maker (U.S. Electronics) has already filed a $48 million suit against Sirius. The FCC continues to look into the interference issue — but so far it hasn’t taken any action.

Source: INSIDE RADIO

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May 9, 2007

eMarketer Offers Broad, Optimistic Music Industry Outlook

After years of major label losses, RIAA lawsuits, and brick-and-mortar bleeding, the industry is finally recognizing broader music industry gains. Sectors like live concerts, publishing, and mobile music have been blossoming for years, and non-traditional CD retailers and independent labels have been multiplying their market shares.

Despite the gains, a lopsided view frequently prevails. Major labels have always played a significant role in the larger business, and their plight seems to dominate media coverage and casual conversation. In contrast, discussions related to performance licensing, t-shirt sales, and sponsorships deals are harder to digest. But non-label sectors are feeding off of increased consumer appetites for music, the result of unprecedented levels of media access and consumption.

Just recently, researcher eMarketer started to quantify the broader music industry gains. The company projected North American industry revenues of $26.5 billion by 2011, an average annual growth rate of 2.8 percent from $23.1 billion currently. Live concerts and publishing will fuel the gains, while digital and mobile assets will offset physical decreases, according to the research group. "Every major category of the live music industry has been growing and is poised for continued expansion, including ticket sales, merchandise sales, ancillary venue revenue and tour and special-event related sponsorships," the group noted. Additionally, the group pointed to stronger branding opportunities ahead. "The climate for marrying brands to musical artists has never been more favorable," said Paul Verna, senior analyst and author of the report.

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May 8, 2007

Ticketmaster Layers Free Downloads Into Ticket Purchases

Buy a ticket, get a free download. That is what Ticketmaster customers can now expect, thanks to a recently-unveiled sales strategy. The program will offer every online ticket buyer access to a ten-song download sampler of emerging artists. In addition, buyers of summer concert tickets will receive access to a free iTunes download, an offer that runs between Memorial Day (May 28th) and Labor Day (Sept 3rd). "Ticketmaster's concert program gets digital and live music directly to the fans, enabling them to experience new and undiscovered music," said Sean Moriarty, president and chief executive of the company. Fans will appreciate the freebie, though bands included in the gesture may ultimately reap the greatest benefit. The reason is that selected groups suddenly gain an immense promotional toehold, one that can fuel future interest and purchases.

For Ticketmaster, the move is part of a broader partnership with iTunes, announced in February of this year. Already, the duo has delivered exclusive, pre-order album download access to ticket buyers, most notably for Bob Dylan. The Dylan initiative, which revolved around the album Modern Times, was sparked in August of last year. Other concepts include bundled, "Ticketmaster+iTunes" download cards, part of a growing relationship between the pair. Elsewhere, Ticketmaster has also invested in digital startups echomusic, an online fan club and brand management company, and iLike, a music-focused social networking play. Just recently, the company integrated its event alert functionality into iLike, a system that serves one million registered users and processes more than 200 million monthly track plays.
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May 7, 2007

Clear Channel Delays (Again) Shareholder Meeting for Private Vote

Clear Channel Communications today announced that its board of directors is in discussions with Bain Capital Partners, LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners, the two private equity groups that have a pending bid to take over the company, regarding a possible change in the terms and structure of the proposed deal.

Specifically, the sides are hashing out a proposal that would increase the per share price to be paid Clear Channel shareholders from $39.00 to $39.20 per share, and which would give each unaffiliated shareholder a choice between cash and stock in the surviving corporation in the merger, up to an aggregate cap equivalent to 30% of the outstanding shares immediately following the merger (approximately 6% before the merger).

Clear Channel's board of directors has rescheduled the special meeting of shareholders it had scheduled for a vote on the merger from May 8 to May 22, 2007.

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May 1, 2007

Sirius Satellite announces Q1 Results

Now that both Sirus and XM have announced their first quarter performance results we know that combined the two added 836,490 new subscribers (XM: 280,000 - Sirius 556,490). This brings the totals to date to 7.9 million for XM and 6.6 million for Sirius.

Sirius which plans to acquire rival XM Satellite Radio, on Tuesday reported a smaller first-quarter loss as revenue increased from new subscribers.

The New York-based company, No. 2 in the nascent pay-radio market to XM Satellite , said its net loss narrowed to $144.7 million, or 10 cents a share, from $458.5 million, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue at Sirius, the satellite radio home of shock jock Howard Stern and the National Football League, climbed 61 percent to $204 million from $126.7 million.

Analysts on average expected a loss of 11 cents a share on revenue of $213.4 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

During the quarter, Sirius added 556,490 net subscribers to end at 6.6 million in total. Its average monthly subscriber churn -- a measure of users who quit the service -- was 2.3, which Sirius said was consistent with a previously provided 2007 churn outlook.

Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said the results were solid, particular with Sirius' gross additions -- the raw number of new subscribers -- at 988,000, compared with his forecast of 889,000.

"By handily beating expectations in arguably the most important metric -- subscriber growth -- Sirius continues to show solid growth as a stand-alone business," he said in a note to clients.

Subscriber acquisition cost, or SAC, per gross subscriber addition was $104 for the first quarter of 2007. Sirius said that was 8 percent better than the year ago quarter, and keeps it on track for its full-year target of $95.

Sirius plans to buy XM in an all-stock deal worth about $4 billion when it was first announced, but some U.S. lawmakers and consumer groups have criticized the merger as anti-competitive.

Sirius said it was confident that it would complete the transaction by the end of 2007.

The deal requires the approval of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division, as well as the Federal Communications Commission.

Sirius said it still expected full-year 2007 total revenue "approaching $1 billion" and anticipated more than 8 million subscribers at year-end.

Sirius shares were nearly unchanged in morning Nasdaq trade, after closing on Monday at $2.96. The stock is off about 20 percent since the merger was announced in late February.

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April 26, 2007

Bill Introduced to Set Aside New Webcast Royalty Rates

Eleventh-hour legislation proposed to save Internet radio from almost certain demise came into being today.

The Internet Radio Equality Act, sponsored by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), and currently with eight cosponsors, was introduced on the House floor.

Among other provisions, the bill vacates the CRB, removes the 'willing buyer/willing seller' standard, and establishes a satellite radio-like royalty of 7.5% of revenues or .33 cents per listener hour.The rates are "interim" for the 2006-2010 period -- after that, they will need to be decided again, this time based on the same standard used for satellite radio.

The "Internet Radio Equality Act," would vacate the Copyright Royalty Board's recent hike in webcast performance royalties and set a transitional flat royalty rate of 7.5% of revenues for 2006-2010. The bill would also let webcasters choose an alternative rate of .33 cents per hour of programming streamed to a single listener.

The bill would change the rate-setting standard used by the CRB for Internet-radio royalties to a standard similar to that applied to satellite radio and reset the royalty rules for noncommercial radio stations that stream music online.

The Copyright Royalty Board on March 2 raised the statutory royalty to be paid by Internet radio operators from .07 cents per performance to .08 cents in 2006, .11 cents in 2007, .14 cents in 2008, .18 cents in 2009 and .19 cents in 2010, with a minimum annual fee of $500 per streamed channel. On April 17 the CRB rejected requests by National Public Radio and the Digital Media Association for a rehearing on the rates, and the increased rates are set to go into effect on May 15, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2006.

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April 26, 2007

XM Q1 Loss Narrows, Subscriber Count at 7.9 Million

WASHINGTON (AP) -- XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter loss narrowed as subscription revenue rose sharply.

XM, which agreed to be bought by rival Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., reported a loss of $122.4 million, or 40 cents per share, down from $151.4 million, or 60 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

The loss was a penny larger than Wall Street expected, according to Thomson Financial.

Revenue rose 27 percent to $264.1 million from $208 million last year.

The company ended the quarter with 7.9 million subscribers, up from 6.5 million a year ago. Last year, XM forecast subscribers would exceed 8 million by the end of 2006, but scaled back that target significantly as retail sales of its radios waned.

XM gets the lion's share of its subscribers from partnerships with carmakers, including the two largest, Toyota and General Motors.

The company expects to have between 9 million and 9.2 million subscribers by the end of 2007, with subscription revenue for the year around $1 billion.

In the first quarter, net subscriber additions, which subtract cancelations from gross new customers, slowed to 285,000 in the period from 569,000 a year ago. The rate of customer defection held steady at 1.8 percent. The cost to add a new customer increased to $65 from $59.

XM anticipates reporting an adjusted operating loss of $170 million to $180 million in 2007.

In electronic premarket trading, XM shares added 19 cents to $11.20 after closing Wednesday at $11.01 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

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April 23, 2007

Best Buy Joins the HD Party

BEST BUY has joined forces with the HD DIGITAL RADIO ALLIANCE to now offer iBIQUITY's HD digital radio technology at all of its 832 stores nationally. The HD Radio launch is supported by a marketing communications program that includes the latest phase of the ALLIANCE's previously announced $250 million radio campaign.

"The HD DIGITAL RADIO ALLIANCE and iBIQUITY have created momentum with customers that now make HD Digital Radio one of the hottest electronics choices around," BEST BUY VP/Merchandising CHRIS HOMEISTER said. "Product is now available in all of our stores, so no matter where our customers live, they can discover HD Radio and experience the crystal clear sound and new programming choices."

ALLIANCE Pres./CEO PETER FERRARA said, "Consumers turn to BEST BUY as a trusted resource for the ultimate in electronics entertainment and we’re fortunate to have this retailer lead the way with a strong vision for HD Radio."

iBIQUITY Pres./CEO ROBERT STRUBLE said, "This is another major step forward for HD Radio technology. Following rapid adoption by the broadcast community and an increasing range of products for the mass market, BEST BUY's efforts will dramatically accelerate consumer adoption of this great new technology."

-All Access.com

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April 12, 2007

Top 5 Wireless cities

1. Los Angeles     2071
2. New York        1917
3. Chicago, IL      1392
4. San Francisco  1367
5. Houston          1058

Source: USA Today

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April 10, 2007

Early Adopting Regions Show Slowest Digital Gains

Digital downloads continue to increase year-over-year, though the rate of increase is starting to slow in the United States.  That has heightened concerns of an upcoming plateau, though the larger picture could take several quarters - and even years - to materialize.  But digging into regional data reveals an interesting disparity, one that shows major growth rate differences between early and later adopters.  Armed with Nielsen Soundscan regional breakdowns, music blogger Glenn Coolfer noted that growth rates within the early-adopting western states are slowing, while rates among later-adopters in the middle and southern states remained more robust.  "A slowdown already exists in the regions of the country that first got into digital music," Coolfer noted in the analysis.  "The early adopters, the technologically adept consumers who congregate in west coast cities, are slowing in their digital purchases. The rest of the country has been catching up."

During the first quarter, the Western states (California, Washington) showed gains of between 0 and 30 percent, while gains in the Northeast states (New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut) fell between 31 and 40 percent.  The South Central and Central regions showed healthier gains of 49 and 55 percent, respectively, according to the data.  Meanwhile, urban areas showed gains of 28 percent, while rural areas show a far stronger increase of 55 percent.  "The slower pace at which west coast city dwellers are purchasing foreshadows a slowdown in other regions," Coolfer asserted.  "They've already passed the iTunes binging phase that people in rural areas and the middle of the country are currently experiencing."  Meanwhile, Apple has not disclosed regional data on iPod sales, though early adopters are largely from urban and coastal regions. 

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April 4, 2007

Web advertising’s predicted to overtake radio next year.

That’s a year earlier than ZenithOptimedia predicted just five months ago. It says Internet ad spending will sprout 28% this year — far faster than the 3.9% average
for the rest of media. ZenithOptimedia says radio’s share will be 8.2% of spending. But will fall to 7.9% next year. That’s when Internet’s share will rise to 8% and surpass radio.

There’s an upside to all this. While radio’s share of overall bucks will fall slightly it’s expected to bring in more total dollars each year. In fact the researchers are boosting their forecast of how much radio advertisers will spend over each of the next three years. They say the big losers will be newspapers and magazines — which are looking even worse than they did a few months ago.

Source: Inside Radio

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April 3, 2007

Ryvicker On CBS: We Are Initiating Coverage With An Outperform Rating

Marci Ryvicker, Wachovia VP/Equity Research, is “initiating coverage of CBS with an Outperform rating.” She explains that “while CBS faces tough comparisons in 2007, we still believe there is room for growth and expect acceleration in 2008.
“CBS Television's tough political and syndication comps should be mitigated by a strong upfront season, retransmission consent revenue, Nielsen's new measurement system and persistent No. 1 ratings.

Radio has cycled through its Howard Stern comps and should generate above-average sector revenue and OIBDA growth as a result of the monetization of format changes and a lack of low margin sports contracts. CBS is actively converting its outdoor products to digital, which should contribute 200bps to outdoor revenue and 400bps to outdoor OIBDA in 2007.

“CBS is making investments and generating partnerships to spur long-term growth. The company recently lured top-level executives away from Yahoo and Google, which should help with its expansion into interactive and other nontraditional media. While the revenue and cash flow generation of these initiatives are still small, there is significant long-term upside beginning in 2008, in our view.”

Ryvicker concludes, saying that CBS’ “valuation is compelling. CBS trades at 9.3x 2007E EBITDA and 16.3x tax-adjusted 2007E FCF, discounts of 18% and 14% to the broadcast sector averages, respectively.”

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March 30, 2007

CC Shareholders Advised to Reject Buyout

The chances of Clear Channel shareholders accepting the $37.60-a-share buyout offer from Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners may have grown even dimmer Thursday (March 29) after Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy advisory firm, recommended against shareholder acceptance of the $19 billion deal. Shareholders are set to vote on the offer at a special meeting in San Antonio on April 19.

"The offer price represents a very modest premium," ISS said in its report. "It appears that the primary strategic rationale for the proposed transaction is to take advantage of the hot financing markets driving the current private equity boom. We find that while this rationale may be reasonable, it's not necessarily compelling for longer-term shareholders."

The Clear Channel board of directors and the Mays family, which founded what has evolved into the world's largest radio-broadcast empire, have lobbied shareholders hard to embrace the only offer made since the board and the Mays family announced in mid-October that they wanted to take the company private. Several large institutional shareholders have turned their backs on the offer, saying the per-share amount is too puny.

Several Wall Street analysts have told their investors that CCU shares should be valued at $39 to $42 each. Those recommendations have sparked a small and mostly under-the-radar buying spree by some former broadcasters who are not only taking great delight in the mayhem but also expecting to pick up some easy-earned jack at their former competitor's expense.

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March 23, 2007

HD Radio to bill $14.5M by 2008

From Inside Radio:

Kagan forecasts HD Radio will bring in $1.2 million in revenues this year. That’s pretty small — but Kagan predicts that figure will grow to $14.5 million in 2008 then balloon to $112 million in 2009. The biggest piece of revenues will come from traditional spot radio sales through multicasting. It’ll be worth $620,000 in revenues this year. But by 2011 Kagan says those additional revenues will swell to $1 billion.

Kagan also sees big growth in datacasting revenues and HD-2 sponsored channels — from a $200,000 business this year to nearly $4 million next year. What’s likely to be a very minor business for HD stations will be the subscription-only services.
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March 22, 2007

HD Radio Grows Up - FCC Approves HD Rules

With a 5-0 vote, FCC commissioners approved regulations that allow broadcasters to begin HD multicasting without prior approval from the commission. In addition, AM stations, which are currently limited to daytime-only HD operation, will be allowed to go digital at night. The vote occurred at the commission's regularly scheduled monthly meeting on March 22.

The decision has been delayed since last summer, when commissioners debated whether to impose some of the same public interest obligations that apply to regular over-the-air stations to HD stations. No new public interest obligations were adopted as part of this vote.  

Meanwhile, the NAB issued a statement from president and CEO David K. Rehr applauding FCC chairman Kevin Martin and the commission for "taking a significant step in advancing the already budding HD Radio technology."  

"As HD Radio expands across America, we are hopeful the commission recognizes the unique role played by local radio and the considerable public service contributions voluntarily made by stations within their communities," Rehr added, addressing the previously stated public interest concerns.

iBiquity Digital's president and CEO Bob Struble also weighed in on the FCC's decision.
 
"iBiquity Digital commends the FCC for its decision today to authorize the use of two additional HD Radio services – multicasting and datacasting – and allow AM HD Radio stations to begin nighttime broadcasting.  Today’s decision reinforces the Commission's support for the HD Radio system and provides automakers, broadcasters, receiver manufacturers and retailers with the certainty of formal adoption of critical HD Radio services.  We anticipate this action will also prompt a surge of activity from companies in each of these industries as they look to capitalize on the continuing momentum of the HD Radio rollout."
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Monday March 22, 2007

FCC Approves Disney-Citadel Radio Deal

The FCC has approved Citadel Broadcasting’s acquisition of 24 Disney/ABC Radio stations. However, as part of the deal, Citadel has agreed to spin-off 11 of the stations it currently owns in order to not exceed the FCC’s local ownership cap rules. Those 11 stations will be transferred into a trust while Citadel begins the process of finding buyers for them.

When the acquisition was announced in February 2006, the deal was valued at $2.7 billion.

In a statement, FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said that he approved of the deal in part, “Because of Citadel’s commitment to comply with our media ownership rules and to make special efforts to increase diversity of ownership.  One of the positive results of this merger is that Citadel is losing its grandfathering rights with respect to eleven stations in seven markets in which its attributable [sic] radio interests exceed our local radio ownership limits.  I am pleased that Citadel decided to resolve this issue by creating a non-attributable trust for the purpose of divesting the merged entity of these non-compliant stations.”  

Commissioner Michael Copps added, “While I am always troubled by the effects on our media environment of allowing a large media conglomerate to acquire even more stations, I believe this transaction is narrowly—quite narrowly—in the public interest because ABC’s and Citadel’s holdings do not overlap in any local market and, most important, because Citadel must divest the 11 stations that it owns in excess of our local ownership limits.”
 
Copps tagged his comments with this: “I will be watching the trust’s efforts closely to ensure the results envisioned in this item.”

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March 20, 2007

Satellite Radio Merger News Update

From Inside Radio:

Willing to pay $18 to $20 a month for a “best of” Sirius+XM lineup? The same day Sirius boss Mel Karmazin was wriggling around the pricing question at the House Anti-Trust Task Force two weeks ago — XM COO Nate Davis was giving the Bear Stearns conference at the Breakers in sunny Florida a much better fix. He was ballparking the “best of both worlds” XM+Sirius lineup at perhaps $18 to $20 a month.
The closest any of the House interrogators got with Mel was that the “significant discount” from the combined $25.90 sub price would be “closer to $10 than $2.” But for argument’s sake — a $10 discount would make the price about $16 ($25.90 minus $10 equaling $15.90). While the Nate Davis estimate was more in the middle
($18 to $20). Does price matter? It might to the regulators. It certainly will to the consumer advocates who in some cases are opposing this deal (lining up alongside the NAB on this particular fight).

The latest NAB’s attack on the Sirius-XM merger? It’s bad engineering. An NAB-commissioned study into the proposed merger aims to show that Mel Karmazin and Gary Parsons are promising more than what’s technologically possible. In congressional hearings the pair said the combined satellite service would allow subscribers to pick-and-choose among their channels. But the consulting engineering firm of Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace (MSW) says that would be nearly impossible. That’s because bandwidths, bit rates, data structures, and digital audio coding algorithms of these two systems are completely different. Those differences (for example) allow XM to get 148 channels into its spectrum while Sirius gets just 123. Engineers say tinkering with audio codecs and bit rates may only serve to hurt their audio quality. As for Karmazin’s promise to bring listeners more programming choice — MSW points out that both the XM and Sirius systems are chock-full of programming and significant spare capacity is not available. That’s proven by the occasional announcement that a channel is being dropped to make room for something new. The two satcasters didn’t respond to our request for comment on the NAB’s study.
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March 14, 2007

MySpace Gaining on iTunes, Napster

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March 14, 2007

A new study from consumer and retail information company THE NPD GROUP shows that the recording industry registered solid growth of digital music sales in 2006 from services like iTUNES, but it continues to fight against serious challenges from music piracy in the form of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing.

"Legal a la carte downloads were the fastest growing digital music category in 2006, and it is likely that the annual number of legal users will surpass P2P users in 2007," said NPD GROUP VP and entertainment industry analyst RUSS CRUPNICK. "Unfortunately for music labels, the volume of music files purchased legally is swamped by the sheer volume of files being traded illegally, whether on P2P or burned CDs sourced from borrowed files."

By the end of 2006, there were 47 million "digital music households" in the U.S. -- i.e., households with a member who downloaded, ripped, burned, played, or uploaded digital music. Among those households, 15 million actively downloaded at least one music file from a P2P site in 2006 -- an 8% increase over 2005, but still a slower growth rate than was noted in prior years. While P2P user growth rates slowed, the average P2P user downloaded many more files in 2006 (5 billion files) than the previous year, which represents a 47% increase in P2P downloading compared to 2005 (3.4 billion files).

"The slowdown in the growth rate in the number P2P users is somewhat remarkable given the growth in digital music users overall, the emergence of digital video, and the expanded consumer exposure to broadband," CRUPNICK noted. "Even so, 5 billion files downloaded illegally clearly affect prospects for both CD sales and sales of digital song tracks online."

While in 2005 NPD noted a two-to-one difference between the P2P and pay-to-download populations, in 2006 there were nearly 13 million households using a paid digital music download services -- almost three times more than NPD reported in 2004. Overall, the number of music files purchased in 2006 exceeded 500 million, which is a 56% increase from the previous year. "Paid usage is gaining on P2P; however P2P users tend to download many more files per user than do those consumers who pay for music downloads," said CRUPNICK.

He added, "More anti-piracy initiatives need to be crafted if there's any hope of reducing the amount of P2P file sharing and other piracy. Most of all, the recording industry should continue to nurture and support those who pay to download music in order to reinforce repeat usage and continue to build on take rates."

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March 9, 2007

Internet Radio Scorecard: January 2007

JP Morgan's Internet Radio Scorecard for January says overall, unique visitors to all of internet radio grew 22% y/y in Jan 2007 to about 53.3 mil confirming Bridge Ratings' recently released study of Internet radio listening. Sequentially, unique visitors declined 9% (from Dec '06), driven by a 15% decline in unique visitors for the pure play internet operators, partially offset by a 2% sequential gain for the terrestrial operators sites.

Since Jan 2006, the internet radio audience has grown at a 1.6% monthly compounded rate. The 22% YOY growth in unique visitors was driven by the terrestrial radio operators, whose unique visitors grew about 71% year over year and about 2% sequentially. Unique visitors for the internet operators grew about 4% year over year, although they experienced a 15% sequential decline.

Growth is much stronger for the terrestrial operators YOY than it is for the pure play internet players, reflecting both the terrestrial operators' recent investments into their digital/online operations as well as the smaller base they are growing from. As a result, terrestrial's share of total unique visitors hit a new high. Driven by terrestrial's sequential growth in January (and the internet operators sequential decline), the terrestrial operators' share of unique visitors to internet radio grew to 37% (vs. 26% a year ago), while the internet operators' share fell to 63% (down from 74% a year ago). CBS Radio's unique visitors increased 4% sequentially to 3.1 million, while CCU's unique visitors declined about 5% sequentially to 9.2 million. Collectively, unique visitors to CCU's and CBS Radio's sites now represent more than 23% of the total internet radio audience.

 

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March 6, 2007

NAB Increasing its Opposition to Satcaster Merger

The NAB, which has been relentless in its efforts to convince all who'll listen that the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio is a bad idea, is buying full-page advertisements in newspapers and ad space on a new political news Web site aimed at a Capitol Hill readership in hopes of convincing legislators that a merger would hurt consumers.

An ad set to appear Wednesday (March 7) in Congress Daily, Communications Daily, Roll Call and The Hill and at political Web site The Politico is headlined "No one wins in their monopoly." The ad shows a Monopoly board game remade with XM and Sirius as the only operators, and the only winning property is labeled: "FCC rules prohibit satellite radio merger CONSUMER WINS." The advertising copy notes that FCC rules prohibit a merger and says, "This attempt at a government-sanctioned monopoly would be a government bailout for two satellite radio giants that have repeatedly thumbed their nose at FCC regulations. Nobody wants to play games with companies that don't follow the rules."

Twice last week the NAB took out similar anti-merger advertisements in Capitol Hill-oriented newspapers to send the message that "Congress should oppose this attempt at a government bailout." Attorney general John Ashcroft has also written a three-page letter on behalf of the NAB to current attorney general Alberto Gonzales criticizing the merger and speculating on the damage it could cause consumers. Ashcroft's services became available to the NAB after he pitched his lobbying resources to decisionmakers at XM, who declined the offer.

 

February 23, 2007

Jacoby Offers Opinion On XM/Sirius House Hearing

Bank of America securities analyst Jonathan Jacoby writes about the new antitrust trust task force within the House Judiciary Committee that will hold a hearing next week on the impact of the proposed XM/Sirius merger on the consumer. The hearing was announced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Michigan). According to Conyers, the hearing is being held to “allow members to probe whether this merger will enhance or diminish competition in the digital music distribution industry.” Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin will testify at the hearing on February 28.

Jacoby’s reaction: “A congressional hearing doesn’t doom the deal (we believe the merger does pass muster on competitive grounds), but it shows that the high profile nature of the transaction could attract plenty of opposition & slow the process. We don’t believe that the merger should be blocked on competitive grounds – the plethora of audio entertainment options suggests that the newly merged company still would face plenty of competition. But a review by Congress seems to open the door further to politically motivated opposition. In addition to potential procedural hurdles at the FCC, we previously have highlighted the risk that the NAB makes an effort to push new legislation to block the merger on the grounds that it would harm the FCC’s goals of promoting localism and diversity of content. A current bill, HR 983, only addresses localized programming by XM and Sirius, but we wonder if the NAB will seek to have more restrictive amendments added.”

Jacoby continues, offering these investment thoughts: “We remain cautious on both XM and Sirius; the regulatory hurdles make completion of the deal far from certain. We continue to believe that the probability of deal passing is below 50%. Assuming $5 billion of synergy value, we estimate that Sirius and XM stock would be worth ~$4.25 and ~$19, respectively – BUT only if FCC approval is obtained. And if the deal is not approved by the FCC, we estimate that Sirius and XM would be worth only $2.50 and $13.50, respectively – implying significant downside risk for investors.”
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February 13, 2007

Veoh to target YouTube viewers

February 13, 2007

Zune Marketplace Installation Levels Remain Low, Report

Early reports suggest that sales of the Microsoft Zune player have been weak, though the software giant has yet to release official numbers. That makes it difficult to accurately draw comparisons to other players, though a recent application installation report offers more clues. The Digital Media Desktop report, published monthly by the Digital Music News Research Group, monitors installation levels across dozens of leading digital music applications. During November and December, Zune Marketplace installation levels were quite low, landing at 0.05% and 0.22%, respectively. The Marketplace download is designed to work hand-in-glove with the Zune player, much like the iPod+iTunes connection. Application levels on iTunes were comparatively strong, landing at 25.83% and 26.59%, respectively.

In the P2P space, LimeWire continued to exert its dominance over rival file-sharing applications. The popular app pulled an 18.92% installation level in December, part of a continued growth curve. Other applications, including BearShare, Kazaa, and Morpheus, showed installation levels of under 2%. The strong showing for LimeWire has not gone unnoticed by the RIAA, which recently initiated legal action against parent company Lime Wire LLC. A victory – in court or through settlement – would bury the last heavy-hitting P2P application, though fresh upstarts are emerging in the BitTorrent camp. That includes Azureus, which pulled a 3.13% installation level in December, just one of several in that range. Among swapping protocols, BitTorrent and Gnutella were by far the favorites.

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February 12, 2007

Convert any car radio to HD with Crutchfield’s new add-on.

The new HD Car Connect Radio from Directed Electronics hits the market today at a price point of $199. It connects to a vehicle’s audio system and literally
transforms it into an HD receiver. This one’s from Crutchfield but similar devices are on the way from other manufacturers. HD Digital Radio Alliance president Peter Ferrara says H