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 BY
KURT HANSON
An article in yesterday's New York Times offers a glimpse of
an opportunity that might be a great new distribution alternative
for all-news radio stations.
The article begins, "In Europe, media companies are seeing phones
as the future. Last week in Britain, following news of strong sales...over
the holiday shopping season, the news media reported that just slightly
under 24 million people in Britain -- one-fourth of the people in
the country -- now own a mobile phone.
According to Forrester Research, the piece notes, mobile phone ownership
has already hit 50% or better in Italy, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
"The mobile phone is increasingly seen as a
bridge between the converging worlds of traditional media and the
Internet," the article continues. "Updates
from news organizations have proven to be among the most
popular of the wireless services, which can either function as an
e-mail service, receiving news headlines and stock quotes, or can
work more like a Web browser on a PC, reading special pared-down Internet
sites.
"'News seems to be the big winner so
far, based on evidence from Norway,' said Lars Godell,
an analyst with Forrester in Amsterdam..."
"But, it is also a
big revenue opportunity for
the media companies. 'Because it's a pay-per- use
service,' Nordan said, 'content providers
can actually make money off of their content directly without
selling a subscription. Cell phones can give them micropayments for
free, which for many media providers has been the holy grail of the
Internet that's just never materialized'..."
It seems to me that there's no reason that the winning approach
here should be text from a national provider like CNN. If news content
is coming via the Internet into a cell phone, wouldn't a local
news radio station be a more logical and desirable provider?
Read the full New York Times story here
(registration required). Click here
for the November 30th issue of RAIN, featuring an article on
how European teens are starting to listen to music on their
cell phones already. And contribute your opinons on this topic here.
NetRadio.com
and INTERVU  have
inked an agreement in which INTERVU will provide streaming services
for NetRadio.com's
120 channels of originally programmed music content, making
it one of INTERVU's largest customers.
Richard Hailey, NetRadio.com's chief technology officer, said, "We
have been running test streams on INTERVU's distributed  network
infrastructure for some time now, and they have shown a strong understanding
of the technical challenges surrounding streaming media. NetRadio.com
is one of the largest streaming audio content providers on the Internet,
and we're excited to work with a company that has helped raise the
standard in high quality delivery of RealNetworks G2 streams."
NetRadio.com's  player
(pictured) allows listeners to see the title and artist of every song
as it plays (plus the previous title) and can click to purchase what
they're hearing from an inventory of more than 250,000 music titles
at NetRadio.com's on-line music store. NetRadio is a Minneapolis-based
firm.
The firms issued a press release which is available here.
From
RBR: "XM seeks $257.6M: XM Satellite Radio has amended
a 12/23/99 SEC filing to sell $142.6M in new common stock. The company
is now also offering $115M in preferred stock.  Underwriters:
DLJ, Bear Stearns, Bank of America, Unterberg Towbin." Click
here for Radio Business
Report.
XM is the Washingon, DC-based satellite radio provide that
is aligned with General Motors, has Clear Channel as an investor,
and is being programmed by Lee Abrams and Dave Logan.
Las week, the firm announced new manufacturer commitments (Sony and
Audiovox) plus a deal that will create
the nation's first 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, all-NASCAR radio channel
exclusively for XM Radio.
The stock offering should raise approximately $142 million after expenses.
SonicNet added a new "celebrity-programmed" radio station
yesterday with the debut  of
a new channel featuring the musical tastes of three Country music
sisters called SHeDAISY.
SHeDAISY's debut gold album "The Whole Shebang" was the largest country
group unit debut in Soundscan's history. They won Best Country  New
Artist Video of the Year at the Billboard Music Video awards, and
they are CMT's 1999 Rising Star award winners.
The new channel joins celebrity-programmed "stations" by
Eminem, the Bacon Brothers (see left), 311, Amy Grant, Everything
But The Girl, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, each of which plays artists
and songs that were influences in that artist's career. ("If
you've ever wondered what CDs are in your favorite musician's stereos,
don't touch that mouse: at Radio SonicNet you can find out.")
SonicNet is part of the MTVi group of websites that also includes
MTV.com and VH1.com.
Lots of press pieces have dealt with this topic in the past few days.
We'll add links to several of them tomorrow. Here's one from from
CNET
News to get you started; please feel free to check back for
more.
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!
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Radio
and Internet Newsletter is
a daily compilation of news (plus essays, commentary, and resources)
designed to help you better understand the Internet and its
potential impact on radio -- both the dangers it presents
and the opportunities it offers. We hope you find it
valuable.
--KH |
Thanks for
reading RAIN today. Please check back again later for more.
And if you like
it, please tell your colleagues about
it! (See below.)
We've made it easy for you! All you have to do is cut-and-paste
the following text into your e-mail software, add any personal
observations you'd like to make, and send it to the people
in your address book. Here's some proposed text (although of
course you can edit it any way you like):
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There's
a new, free, web-based newsletter
that I've been reading
lately and that I think you might find interesting too.
It's called "RAIN: Radio and Internet Newsletter."
Published by Strategic Media Research's Kurt Hanson, RAIN
is a daily compilation of news stories -- plus essays,
commentary, and resources -- designed to help media executives
keep on top of issues involving the Internet and its potential
impact on radio.
RAIN takes a look at the THREATS to radio
as we know it today...but also at the many OPPORTUNITIES
it offers. It doesn't require any subscription -- just
visit www.kurthanson.com.
[OPTIONAL: Add any personal observations
here.]
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Thanks for spreading the word! (Hopefully, you're doing
your friends a favor, too.)
(Please free free to "cc:" me
on your e-mail (kurt@kurthanson.com). Then someday if and when
I have a drawing for fabulous prizes to thank readers for spreading
the word, I'll put your name in the hat.)
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