television

You many know Radioplayer (see RAIN coverage here) is the online aggregate of radio in Britain, 315 streaming audio channels and on-demand content. It's a not-for-profit cooperative co-owned by the BBC and (most of) the UK's commercial radio industry, launched one year ago this month.

Today Radioplayer boasts seven million monthly unique users. And it represents a victory in successfully transitioning traditional media to an online platform, compared to television in the UK, says Emma Barnett, The Telegraph's Digital Media Editor.

"Where British TV companies have failed... the radio industry has genuinely managed to build a successful aggregator through clever cooperation and by focusing on the product, rather than the potential new revenue streams," she wrote. "British TV content crucially still doesn’t have a single web player."

Each participating station is given equal prominence in the player, and each displays their own advertising and content. And there is total autonomy for each contributing station. Radioplayer managing director Michael Hill credits the platform's success to "its fairness, openness and its not-for-profit status."

Radioplayer also generates revenue (which goes back into developing and improving the player) by licensing its technology. Two such improvements are the coming mobile app and an app for Internet connected television systems (more here).

Read coverage from The Telegraph here.

Four music industry lobby groups sent a letter to the Congressional debt-reduction "supercommittee" yesterday, encouraging lawmakers to let the FCC auction television broacast spectrum wireless operators. The American Federation of Musicians, the Recording Academy, SoundExchange and the Music Managers Forum say the auctions could raise billions of dollars in revenue for deficit reduction, as well free up spectrum for wireless broadband devices. Broadcasters that own television licenses want to choose whether they relinquish this spectrum, and want to be fully compensated for doing so.

But why are music industry interests speaking up regarding television spectrum? The Hill's "Hillicon Valley" blog put it simply: "Broadcasters and the music industry have a long-running feud over whether artists should receive royalties when radio stations play their songs."

The music industry groups say they are interested to "hasten the migration of music fans to cutting edge (wireless broadband) platforms that compensate artists," by paying royalties they say are a "basic economic and civil right for musicians."

The groups wrote, "It would seem to us that the NAB is not entitled to spectrum owned by the public, or costs associated with relinquishing it, and the federal government reclaiming this spectrum for purposes of deficit reduction is the kind of shared sacrifice that is required in these difficult times."

The NAB doesn't buy it. Spokesman Dennis Wharton fired back, "By coupling a TV spectrum issue with an unrelated performance tax on radio stations, the music industry sets the standard for grasping at straws. This is a Hail Mary pass that deserves to fall incomplete."

Inside Radio believes the letter is part of a new music industry "tactic: find ways to make it difficult for broadcasters to do business such as by opposing license renewals.  The request to the Super Committee fits into that strategy, and similar moves are in the works, according to insiders who say bad feelings among many in the music community linger."

What's more, Inside Radio sees implications for online radio too. "As online streaming royalties grow bigger with each passing year, (NAB president Gordon) Smith believes webcast rates are likely to become intertwined with an on-air royalty issue," they write today. "Broadcasters’ current streaming royalty agreement with SoundExchange expires in 2015 yet Smith thinks there could be a way to resolve both the on-air and digital royalty issues sooner than that, potentially with something similar to a universal settlement. But with some broadcasters more digitally invested than others, radio’s internal royalty debate may once again break down between large and small market operators. Smith said he was optimistic that won’t happen, suggesting any new proposal would include an even more 'progressive system' where size dictates costs."

LG, Sharp and Philips are “joining forces” to create a development kit for web-connected TV applications, essentially creating a common standard for developers. This is good news for anyone hoping to gain a presence on new Internet-connected TVs, including webcasters.