x SoundExchange has rejected an offer from the NAB over webcast royalty rates. Read the full story in today's issue here. x

From Bridge Ratings: "During July/August 2007, Bridge Ratings undertook a broad-based national study,... by interviewing consumers and device and auto manufacturers to better understand the implications of wireless Internet and the availability of Wireless Internet Radio.

"Today 30 million Americans use wireless Internet access and it will grow to nearly 45 million by the end of 2007...

"Of the estimated 30 million users of wireless access technology in the U.S., 75% or 23 million have wirelessly accessed Internet radio. In fact, 48% of those accessing the Internet via wireless technology seek out Internet radio. The number of Internet radio listeners accessing wirelessly will grow to 77 million by 2010 as wireless technology penetrates the average U.S. lifestyle...

"Mobile WiMAX customers will grow at an annual compounded rate of 64% between 2009 and 2012, when telecoms embrace WiMAX as a fixed wireless broadband service, according to Pyramid Research...

Effect of wireless broadband on AM/FM
"By year 5 of in-car Wi-Fi acceptance, traditional radio can expect to see the amount of time spent listening to fall below 19 hours a week, and by year 8 when we project that more than 23% of the U.S. public will have adopted wireless Internet technology in-car, weekly time spent listening to traditional radio will fall below 18 hours per week...

"According to our sample, satellite radio should experience a more severe drop-off in weekly time-spent-listening due to the wide variety of programming available on Internet Radio and the lack of comparable subscription expense.

"Bridge Ratings expects that traditional radio revenues will be enhanced by Wi-Fi Internet Radio only if the radio industry vastly improves its advertising sales techniques and commits to dedicated Internet radio sales teams."

Read the entire report at Bridge Ratings.

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BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
Based on a public letter from NAB President and CEO David Rehr to SoundExchange executive director John Simson, SoundExchange has apparently refused the NAB's webcast royalty settlement offer of June 6.

In a press release, Rehr expressed "extreme disappointment" with a letter written by SoundExchange dismissing the "good faith offer" made by the broadcast group 96 days previous.

The NAB's letter to SoundExchange notes that the broadcast group seeks a resolution to the royalty rate crisis, "to enable greater radio station streaming activity, allowing revenue to artists through SoundExchange to grow beyond that achievable under the CRB rates."

Until recently, the NAB website featured an image (left) counting the days since an offer was made by the broadcast group to SoundExchange with no response from the recording industry group.

As of today's announcement, that image has been removed from the NAB website.

The full text of the NAB's letter is here (.pdf).

From RBR: "Nearly 75% of all adults log onto the Internet and nearly 1 in 5 (18%) of online users visit a radio website over the period of a month.

"A profile of radio website visitors shows that well educated, upper income, white collar workers in addition to younger people tend to be more likely to visit radio websites. These findings come from a recently released telephone study of 118,211 randomly selected adults conducted by The Media Audit between January 2006 and April 2007 in 88 markets across the nation.

"Four top 10 cities (based on  population) San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia make it into the top 10 for radio website visitors. In rank order the top 3 cities for radio website visitors are Minneapolis, Seattle and Atlanta."

Subscribers can read the entire report at RBR.

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