[opendtv] Technology evolves
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 22:38:30 +0000
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
>> And the subscription radio services are not all that successful.
>
> Maybe they don't need to be. Serius/xm has about 25 million paying
> subscribers; the major audience is in vehicles where it enjoys the
> advantage of a national footprint. Pandora has more than 70 million
> monthly listeners, many pay to avoid the ads; iTunes Radio has
> millions of listeners, many of which (like me) pay for the iTunes
> Match service, which eliminates ads along with other services that
> enhance iTunes.
The important point of this is that the "national footprint," heck even a
"global footprint," is available for Internet radio, as cellular coverage
becomes more contiguous. As of now, in developed countries, 3G coverage is very
well distributed, and 4G is ramping up. Especially so on highways, which works
in Internet radio's favor, in-car usage of radio being a primary concern here.
So this makes the satellite solution, or for that matter the shortwave solution
for a global footprint, close to superfluous in developed countries. Of course,
there is that huge installed base of radios in cars. You'll note many new cars
come with Pandora and other such options, built-in.
And cell networks are being deployed heavily in developing countries now.
So bottom line, when radio is involved, everything seems designed correctly.
When TV is involved, all the designers become brain-dead (I know, you're going
to say it's to "protect" something or other, which only means that greed
promotes brain-death). This has been true for decades and it also applies to
recorded TV vs recorded audio. With the exception of digital radio, radio has
always been globally compatible worldwide. And it just may be that Internet
radio will make DAB/IBOC/DRM/DTMB superfluous as well. This incompatibility
disease has yet to affect Internet products. Here's to hoping.
> But the real "elephant in the room" is personal music libraries on
> MP3 players, smartphones, tablets, the TV, et al.
Well, personal music libraries can also be stored in "the cloud," and really,
that's somewhat different. Radio gives up-to-the-minute news, weather, and
traffic reports, which a stored music library doesn't. And for music lovers,
radio also exposes people to material they don't already know. So honestly, I
see recorded music as a separate and more limited category, and I see podcasts
as an interim solution as well.
> Broadcast radio survives, even thrives, because it is free,
> receivers are ubiquitous (especially in vehicles), and the "content"
> has adapted to meet the challenges outlined above.
Yes, but there are 10s of thousands of free Internet radio streams out there
too, for the entire world to enjoy, in full hifi sound. I'm talking more about
the technology here. Radio content has migrated already.
Bert
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