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From CNET News: "America Online is acquiring media giant
Time Warner in a deal that would create a company valued around
$350 billion.
 "It
is probably the most significant development in the Internet business
world to date," said Phil Leigh, an analyst at Raymond James. "If
it hasn't been evident to most of us yet, it should be obvious to
us now that the Internet is about audio and video and not
just merely text and graphics."
"About 18 months ago, the feeling was that some of the media companies
would buy Internet companies, but what happened is that the valuations
got so reversed that it is really the opposite that is likely,"
said Leigh. "With 55 percent of the new company's stock being controlled
by AOL shareholders, I think AOL is in the driver's seat. Today's
deal is psychologically a big step and now it is likely that we
will see others come along."
 The
all-stock transaction between AOL and Time Warner will be the biggest
merger in history.
Read the original
story and a follow-up
on CNET News here or MSNBC's take on the story here.
More analysis and commentary tomorrow, including comments
from readers. Add your observations and insights here.
Commentary
"In the past we always thought that Internet companies needed
traditional assets to succeed, and it's becoming more evident
that it's the traditional media companies that need the help
because they can't figure it out," said Charlene Li, an analyst
at Forrester Research. From CNET here.
"The deal signifies beyond a shadow of a doubt that the
Internet has become a vital piece of the media puzzle, and it
is almost certain to spark a flurry of other breathtaking deals
between old-line media giants and newly minted Internet companies."
From the Wall Street Journal here
(subscription required).
Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin was especially bullish about the
music angle. "One of the most exciting things about this transaction
related to the music business," Levin said. "Through AOL and
through the Internet, you have a worldwide opportunity to promote.
The music business is built on signing new acts, and this new
society has a vast field of which to choose. Also, music lends
itself to the digital downloading and more efficient delivery
of music." From CNN.com here.
"It comes at a time when many big media companies are struggling
to figure out how to harness the power of the Internet, and
when Internet companies are increasingly looking to put entertainment
and other content on their Web sites to attract more customers."
From the Wall Street Journal here
(subscription required).
"My guess is that this deal will convince Yahoo!, Lycos
and the rest of the major Net portal players of the urgency
to look around for other big media conglomerates." From
ZDNet here.
Time Warner, a company with fantastic individual media properties,
poured millions of dollars into that mid-1990s effort but just
couldn't figure out how to transfer that amazing brand equity
from the world of print to the Internet. From ZDNet here.
|
 BY
KURT HANSON
On Friday, Radio & Records ran a brief item noting that
Lee Zapis, "the former President of Zapis Communications, is
now VP/COO of Everstream, which provides digital streaming of music
content to daily online news sites as well as the systems the sites
need to generate revenue though online audio advertising..."
Click here to read
that item in Friday's edition (subscription required).
An article in the 12/20/99 Crain's Cleveland Business gives
more detail: "Everstream  has
developed a product to help local newspapers establish branded
radio stations on their Internet portals.
"Like their traditional broadcast cousins, the newspapers'
online radio stations will generate revenues by selling airtime
to local and national advertisers...
"Mr. McHale said they give advertisers an alternative to online
banner ads, which have seen a decline in the number of click-throughs...
" 'This will be a significant part of Internet advertising
going forward,' said Mr. McHale, President of Everstream which employs
12... Everstream already has landed two clients -- Ohio.com, the
online version of The Akron Beacon Journal, and Nando Media...
"'We'll only have three  or
four breaks an hour for a total of six minutes an hour,' Mr. McHale
said. By contrast, Mr. Zapis said broadcast radio stations typically
allot 15 minutes each hour for commercials..."
Lee has
found quite a concept here, it seems to me. Sixty or seventy
years ago, many newspapers applied for and were granted licenses
by the FCC to launch radio stations (e.g., The Milwaukee Journal's
WTMJ/Milwaukee). Now it looks as if newspapers may be poised to
do it again -- only, this time, without the need for the
FCC license.
Obviously, this could be a threat to radio stations (both
in terms of listeners and ad dollars) if radio stations are shut
out here. Or it could be a great opportunity if radio stations
can get involved somehow -- cutting, say, co-branding deals with
their local newspapers. And/or it may work in radio's favor if hundreds
of newspaper ad salespeople start to hit the streets talking up
the advantages of radio advertising.
And of course it might be great for radio people if hundreds of
new radio jobs open up at dozens of newspaper-owned stations. (After
all, they'll need programmers and salespeople if they want to do
it right.)
Read the Crain's Cleveland Business article here.
Comment on the implications of this story here.
More on this story (including reader comments) later this
week.
According to a  report
just issued by Nielsen//NetRatings, November usage data
for the top Internet media players indicates that the vast majority
of home Internet users are using none of them.
According the data from the company's Internet Media Strategies
service, RealPlayer had a reach of 12.1 percent of the active Internet
universe -- i.e., home users who both have Internet access and used
it. Apple's QuickTime had a 7.4 percent reach and Microsoft's Windows
Media Player had a reach of 3.2 percent.
Note that QuickTime, while technically a "media player,"
is generally not used for streaming media like radio webcasts;
it's typically used by users who download a piece of audio or video
content in its entirety before listening to it.
| |
Usage
of Top Internet Media Players, November 1999
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, January 2000 |
| |
Player
Name |
Unique
Audience Reach
|
%
|
| |
RealPlayer |
8,973,331
|
12.1
|
| |
QuickTime |
5,461,303
|
7.4
|
| |
Windows
Media Player |
2,376,191
|
3.2
|
You can see
from the table above that the reach of the two primary streaming
media players above (RealPlayer and Windows Media Player) would
add up to 15.3% -- and that's before you subtract out duplication.
Allen Weiner, vice president of analytical services at NetRatings,
was quoted as saying, ""The battle of media players on the
end user's desktop is as significant as the battle of desktop operating
systems many years ago." (Actually, a comparison to web browsers
-- i.e., Netscape vs. Microsoft Internet Explorer -- might be more
appropriate.)
Nielsen//NetRatings is an Internet audience measurement service
that's a joint venture of Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings,
Inc.
Note that this story totally contradicts a press release
issued last week by Microsoft, in which they quote Media Metrix
statistics to claim that, in September, "Windows Media Player
was used by 14.3 percent of home PC users. By comparison, RealNetworks
Inc.'s RealPlayer was used by 16.8 percent, demonstrating that Microsoft
continues to narrow the gap with the competition in consumer usage."
There's obviously a huge difference between the 3.2% reach
for Windows Media Player quoted by Nielsen//NetRatings and the 14.3%
quoted in the Microsoft press release. More on this later this week.
(Your comments and insights are invited here.)
There's a good story on the battle between RealNetworks and
Windows Media Player in today's New York Times. Click here
to read it (registration required).
 From
Radio Business Report: "Shares of musicmusicmusic.com shot
up Friday (1/7) on the Frankfurt, Germany Neuer Markt after the
company (which, strangely, is based in the US) said it had a $400K
deal to swap services for promotion by Citadel Communications (O:CITC)
and its radio stations. Musicmusicmusic operates a user-programmed
MP3 music site, RadioMoi.com." Click here
for RBR.com.
In fact, RadioMoi is a Toronto-based Internet broadcaster that
lets listeners set up "playlists" of approximately 100
songs they'd like to listen to -- and then plays those songs in
a random sequence. Its founder and CEO is "a 1980s punk music
industry maven turned Internet geek" (according to the Toronto
Sun) named Wolfgang Spegg. In a dispute with the Canadian Recording
Industry Association, Spegg moved his server across the border into
Vermont and signed a licensing deal with the U.S.'s RIAA.
Reprinted from Friday's late-afternoon
edition:
From the Chicago Sun-Times: "Motorola Inc., the Schaumburg
technology company, is  combining
new Internet-based technology with its 70-year-old roots in car
radios. The company introduced the prototype for the iRadio,
an Internet-based car radio that makes it possible for drivers to
have e-mail read, listen to voice mail, get reports on their stock
holdings and obtain local traffic and weather information--just
by talking to their radio.
"'We are reinventing the car radio,' said Bob Denaro, Motorola vice
president of telematics, the technical name for communications into
and out of cars.
Although the Sun-Times article notes that the actual device
may not become commercially available for "several years,"
the fact that the prototype is already out seems like it's on a
timetable ahead of anyone's guess.
"The iRadio will use broader-band communications that make
possible information and entertainment services, including radio
broadcasts from anywhere in the world and downloads of audio books.
Voice commands will be used to obtain information. 'You don't want
people to be dialing little buttons. All iRadio communications can
be done hands-free, which means drivers can keep their hands on
the wheel and eyes on the road,' Denaro said.
Read the article from the Chicago Sun-Times here.
Click on the
logos above to go to the corresponding site. More to come. Contribute
your suggestions for additional sites here.
Also...
Click here for some
screenshots of various audio players.
For a sample "RAIN Internet Audio Guide" page
on WWW.com, click here.
Want to read
even more? See menu at top left.
Any
thoughts or comments? Contribute them here!
Thanks for reading "RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter."
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