Radio Fights Back

Traditional broadcasters are exploring the use of a new weapon in their fight against satellite and Internet radio.  Reuters reports that "several leading U.S. radio operators are considering forming a cooperative national network tapping new bandwidth freed by emerging digital technology that would compete with increasingly popular satellite radio offerings, according to industry executives. Such cooperative programing would enable broadcasters, who are moving to convert stations to high-definition digital radio, to offer diverse formats not currently available on traditional AM and FM stations at lower prices than satellite radio, industry experts said."

"High-definition digital radio provides CD-quality song and traffic data and will ultimately allow broadcasters to deliver up to eight more channels over the same amount of spectrum."

"Entercom chief executive David Field told analysts last week… that there was an opportunity for either a profitable subscription-based or ad-supported network. ‘Envision a scenario in which a group of radio companies would form a consortium and roll out new channels on a collective national basis,’ Field said. Such an effort would also ‘deflect the appeal of other radio services that are in the marketplace,’ he said. ‘There will be conversations within the industry… on formulating the best strategy to deploy that (additional) bandwidth,’ Field said during the conference call."

But why not also aggressively explore Internet broadcasting and broadcasting to cell phones?  Perhaps station are just more comfortable working to add these side channels because it feels more like regular broadcasting even though a new $600-$1000 receiver is required to hear them?

Let’s say it again…with the advent of flat rate wireles broadband on your cell phone Internet based radio is the future.

Read the full Reuters article here.