Radio Survivor

WorldSpace, Inc., officially renamed  “1WorldSpace,” discontinued its satellite radio services for subscribers in India yesterday, after a last-minute email notice to subscribers and employees in India.  According to the Economic Times, the estimated 4.5 hundred thousand subscribers (though many other reports indicate much lower numbers, at around 170,000) who will lose their service will not be reimbursed for prepaid services by the company. They have been instructed to claim themselves as creditors of WorldSpace, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in the United States last October, and wait until “sometime early next year” for a response.

According to its website, this service termination occurred because “the potential buyer of much of WorldSpace’s global assets has decided not to buy the WorldSpace assets relating to and supporting WorldSpace’s subscription business in India.” Although the company’s website claims to provide service to around the world including Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, India still constitutes its biggest market at around 95% of its subscriber base. Immediately after its notice to subscribers, a Facebook advocacy group for WorldSpace popped up with over 500  members so far.

Foreign investment

The question to be asked now is why this “potential buyer,” which is likely Liberty Media, the same U.S. media giant that recently saved Sirius XM from bankruptcy with a $530 million investment and ownership deal, decided to forgo the purchase?

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I think it’s clear that even if people don’t have access to traditional terrestrial radio stations, there is still a desire for radio-like content.

Dial up for Radio

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Cellphone Entertainment Takes Off in Rural India,” discusses rural villages in India where there is limited access to FM radio, but there is cell phone reception. According to the piece:

“…in villages that don’t receive any FM radio stations, people have begun calling a number that has a recording of Bollywood tunes and listening to it on their headsets.

This primitive cellular ‘radio’ service was used by close to 20 million Indians last year, phone company executives estimate.”

I’m not sure how closely these transmissions (which also include separate services for sports broadcasts, weather reports, and religious services) mimic traditional radio broadcasts or if they are more like DJ-less services like iTunes or Pandora. Either way, they are creating a transistor radio-like experience for people without radios.

As I’ve written previously on Spinning Indie, there is actually a service called AudioNow that transforms any radio station’s webstream into something that can be dialed up on any phone. Hmmm. I smell another business opportunity.