Comments on: The Holy Grail: getting Internet radio into your car (Part I) http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2009/06/15/the-holy-grail-getting-internet-radio-into-your-car-part-i/ News, views and tough love for radio. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:20:09 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Radio Survivor / Radio, Apparently, Is Not Part of Chicago’s Media Future. But It Should Be. http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2009/06/15/the-holy-grail-getting-internet-radio-into-your-car-part-i/comment-page-1/#comment-61 Radio Survivor / Radio, Apparently, Is Not Part of Chicago’s Media Future. But It Should Be. Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:57:27 +0000 http://www.radiosurvivor.com/?p=20#comment-61 [...] hit the ‘net first. Only on the rare occasions when I’m in my car (which isn’t yet internet-equipped) do I turn to radio for the latest. At least part of the reason for this are the many occasions [...] [...] hit the ‘net first. Only on the rare occasions when I’m in my car (which isn’t yet internet-equipped) do I turn to radio for the latest. At least part of the reason for this are the many occasions [...]

]]> By: funferal http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2009/06/15/the-holy-grail-getting-internet-radio-into-your-car-part-i/comment-page-1/#comment-60 funferal Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:38:56 +0000 http://www.radiosurvivor.com/?p=20#comment-60 That's crazy pricing. XM's 'everything' package is $13 (they throw in the 'best of Sirius' for an extra $4.04 - I'm sure those extra 4 cents add up). Sure, there are about 3 times as many people listening to webcasts as satellite - but considering that most webcast users are doing so on their employer's dime, and that it involves little more than firing up an extra browser window, or opening iTunes, I'm imagining there's a fair overlap between those who would go to the trouble and expense to subscribe to satellite and the potential subscriber pool for in-car webcasting. Given that satellite has been around for several years, you're going to need incentive pricing, to move people over, or some 'must have' content. Podcasting is already available for non-live public affairs/talk content (and capturing its small slice of market share). Satellite does a good job for those looking for slickly formatted music. What's the 'must have' content that's going to drag people away from free over-the-air or these other existing platforms? Of course, the pricing reflects the disadvantage that webcasting has over broadcast - the lack of economies of scale. If Autonet had sufficient funds behind it, you might expect discount pricing to attract initial customers, but given the fact that costs will scale with market share, there's actually little incentive to do so. Which indicates that $39/$60 is probably seen as the medium-term cost of these plans (given the limited bandwidth available on wireless networks). Cheaper bandwidth on the internet proper might provide some relief, or migration to new generations of wireless protocol - but remember that those protocols would need to improve efficiency faster than the growth in spectrum/traffic demand in order to bring prices down substantially. That’s crazy pricing. XM’s ‘everything’ package is $13 (they throw in the ‘best of Sirius’ for an extra $4.04 – I’m sure those extra 4 cents add up). Sure, there are about 3 times as many people listening to webcasts as satellite – but considering that most webcast users are doing so on their employer’s dime, and that it involves little more than firing up an extra browser window, or opening iTunes, I’m imagining there’s a fair overlap between those who would go to the trouble and expense to subscribe to satellite and the potential subscriber pool for in-car webcasting.

Given that satellite has been around for several years, you’re going to need incentive pricing, to move people over, or some ‘must have’ content. Podcasting is already available for non-live public affairs/talk content (and capturing its small slice of market share). Satellite does a good job for those looking for slickly formatted music. What’s the ‘must have’ content that’s going to drag people away from free over-the-air or these other existing platforms?

Of course, the pricing reflects the disadvantage that webcasting has over broadcast – the lack of economies of scale. If Autonet had sufficient funds behind it, you might expect discount pricing to attract initial customers, but given the fact that costs will scale with market share, there’s actually little incentive to do so. Which indicates that $39/$60 is probably seen as the medium-term cost of these plans (given the limited bandwidth available on wireless networks). Cheaper bandwidth on the internet proper might provide some relief, or migration to new generations of wireless protocol – but remember that those protocols would need to improve efficiency faster than the growth in spectrum/traffic demand in order to bring prices down substantially.

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