A new study released by Arbitron and Edison Media Research called "The Infinite Dial: Radio's Digital Platforms" states that 61% of people 12 and older are aware of satellite radio. It says nearly one in five non-subscribers are "very" or "somewhat likely" to subscribe in the next 12 months. OK, no problem there, seems to pass the sniff test. But, the survey goes on to say this:

When read a description of HD Radio, 8% said they are “very” interested, and another 27% said they are “somewhat” interested. Those who subscribe to satellite radio are more likely to be “very” interested (10%) or “somewhat” interested (33%) in HD digital radio.

I would like to know the exact language of that description, but, no matter what it was, those are terrible numbers. The survery then states:

Most people who said they were interested in HD digital radio said they would be likely to purchase at a price between $50 and $100. Of the 35% of respondents who said they are interested in HD digital radio, nearly half (47%) said they would only be likely to purchase models that cost $100 or less.

What does this tell us? $50 to $100 is less than the cost of a nearly every satellite radio player (not including car kits), and is less than most MP3 players. Couple that with the low numbers of interest based on a description - one can assume that the description highlighted the key differentiating factors - it sounds like the market for HD Radio is still in the toilet and will be for some time. Certainly, the recent announcement that the HD Radio Alliance will rollout a $200 million advertising campaign for HD Radio is good news, but those interested in getting HD Radio to the masses must never lose sight of the fact that people will not care unless it offers something better than a) what they can get for free, or b) what they can get for an acceptable subscription fee. Free equals over the air radio, so paying for the same radio (i.e. the HD re-broadcast of a station) will never sell, ever. That implies that multicasting is the only way to differentiate. But, then you run into (b) - will the multicast stations be able to compete with satellite's offerings, enough to offset the cost of buying an HD Radio? I think the answer is No. What is the solution then? More on that soon.

Orbitcast has posted photos of the newest portable XM Radio player, the Pioneer Inno. The iPod-sized device receives XM's live signal, records up to 50 hours of music, schedules recordings, and plays WMA's and MP3's. Like earlier XM portables, the Inno has a built-in FM transmitter, allowing you to play your satellite radio over analog radio. Nice. Other specs: color display, 50 channel presets, playlist editing on the device, 5 hours of live XM playback and 15 hours of recorded playback. The price? A mere $399. The Samsung Helix, listed on the XM site as having the same features, is, according to our sister (brother? kinsman?) site, Engadget, nowhere to be seen and XM does not list a price. The Samsung Nexus, available on pre-order, is available in two flavors, 25 and 50 hours of recording time. But - dealbreaker! - they only receive XM signals while docked. Listing at $219 and $269, respectively, the pair of Nexus's (Nexae?) are billed as the world's smallest XM radios.

On Friday, Ofcom, the UK's Office of Communications, announced they would auction 40 MHz of radio spectrum, from 1452 to 1492 MHz in the first quarter of next year. The upper 12.5 MHz would be dedicated to satellite radio, which is a pan-European requirement as regulated by the ITU. The UK is required to protect that block from interference with neighboring countries' satellite radio. The rest of the spectrum is unrestricted and technology neutral, a free-for-all. BT's Movio, a mobile digital TV product based on the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) standard, works in that lower block of spectrum, as do mobile TV systems based on DVB-H and wireless broadband based on WiMax. Ofcom is willing to break up the lower block of spectrum into multiple lots, and licenses would be good for a minimum of 15 years. Responses to Ofcom's Consultation (i.e. public comment period) must be in by June of this year.

[via ZDNet UK]

XM Radio, the number one satellite radio provider (out of a possible two) has recently passed 6.5 million subscribers, and chose to mark the occasion by reminding us that they are headed for 9 million at the end of the year. XM also revealed that their customer acquisition costs have gone down. The market responded with XM's share price rising 1.3% to $22.55, but it's still down 17% this year, according to Reuters. The Motley Fool (via MSNBC) rightly says that this announcement obviously is coming on the heels of Sirius' announcement 2 weeks ago that they had surpassed 4 million subs, and were poised to have 6 million by the end of the year. That's... hm, let's see... carry the 1... 17... er, 15 million subscribers for the year. Can't you smell the vertical integration? Can't you see one of those ripe baskets of $13-a-month subscribers gobbled up by some larger media company looking to get more ad inventory?

[via FMQB]

NPR has selected Melodeo's Mobilcast platform to deliver a set of 45 of its podcasts to cell phones. NPR will get a branded, dedicated channel in the Mobilcast application. Mobilcast allows podcasters to easily add their feed to the Mobilcast directory, and users of the service can search, stream, and download podcasts to their phones. Mobilcast is installed by handset manufacturers, carriers, or users and is available on Cingular, Rogers Wireless, and T-Mobile (no Verizon or Sprint yet, dammit). This seems like a perfect place to try to do dynamic advertising - I mean narrowcast ads, one listener gets one ad. A podcast aggregator, a closed system, copious user information, limited playback controls... seems like fertile ground. It's also great to see NPR pushing podcasting to new heights; they are, after all, one of the more fervent purveyors of multicast HD Radio.

[via SymbianOne]

No, really. He did. The Pope got an iPod. On March 3rd, employees of Vatican Radio gave Pope Benedict XVI a 2GB Nano loaded with Vatican Radio programming in several languages and some classical music. You have to wonder if someone sneaked on some Eminem or Tenacious D. I now have images of the Pope up late, sitting in front of his computer in nothing but that cool hat and some socks, checking Kazaa for tracks of his favorite Italian pop band and William Orbit remixes of Barber's Adagio for Strings. So, if one of your less tech-savvy family members tells you she doesn't know how to work her iPod, you can snidely reply, "C'mon, even the friggin' Pope knows how to use one!"

[via rediff.com]

A podcast called "Red Bar Radio" is claiming to be the first podcast to be syndicated on traditional radio without having first been broadcast over the air. Based out of Chicago, the talk show will be syndicated on the Genesis Communications Network on Saturdays from 9-11pm Central starting April 1. The live show can also be heard at www.redbarradio.com, and of course the podcast can be downloaded afterwards.

This is exactly the kind of movement we want to see in the podcasting space. Nothing will spice up traditional radio (analog or otherwise) than acquiring media from the bottom-up world of podcasts. Broadcast borrows from narrowcast, and the palette of options is improved. Podcasters like Red Bar get the obvious benefits of greater exposure, but can also involve advertisers in their Internet presence as well as their pure audio presence. Everyone wins.

P.S. Kudos to the author of the press release for using the word "portmanteau."

[via Radio World Online]

With all this focus on digital radio, it's easy to forget about traditional radio. Our friends at TimeTrax, however, have not. They are releasing TraxCatcher Classic, a device designed to pickup FM broadcasts, record them to MP3, cut up the tracks (minus commercials and DJ blather), and apply track information. The device costs $160 and will begin shipping in April.

If you're not familiar with TimeTrax, they make hardware and software that allow you to time-shift XM or Sirius programming. By connecting a TimeTrax adapter to your satellite radio, you can record the broadcasts to your PC (sorry, no Mac version) with automatic tagging of artist and song information. The TimeTrax software, Recast, allows you to schedule up to 10 future recordings as well as record what's live now, eliminate the recording of certain artists or songs, only record certain artists or songs, and avoid duplicate songs. The TimeTrax family of products for satellite radio range in price from $45 for the software (you would buy this only to add either XM or Sirius to your already-purchased TimeTrax setup, which allows one service per license) to $170 for everything you need to connect to Sirius.  A complete XM setup is cheaper: $130. In April, you will be able to buy a complete package that includes a portable Sirius Sportster for $299. TimeTrax even offers refurbished systems for 25% to 30% off.

Here we have a wonderful example of the market telling service providers they're moving too slowly. Some enterprising programmers, irritated with not being able to listen to Sirius or XM on their cell phones, have written applications to do just that. A program called SiriusWM5 has appeared, allowing PocketPC users to listen to their Sirius subscription ("I GOTTA HAVE MY HOWARD!!!") on their PocketPC phone (or PDA). Naturally, Sirius has a beef with this: "Our lawyers are diligently pursuing this," says the #2 satellite radio company, whose subscriber base just passed 4 million. There are also programs to receive XM broadcasts, such as Pocket Satellite Radio and MiniXM, and of course XM has released the Hounds of Law on their makers. Currently, a few Sirius channels are available for an extra cost on Sprint Nextel phones, though Howard Stern shows are not available.

[via Reuters]

US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez has publicly supported Apple Computer on the issue of the proposed French law that will, among other things, allow Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies to be legally circumvented. Secretary Gutierrez said that more study is needed but "any time something like this happens, any time that we believe that intellectual property rights are being violated, we need to speak up..." The law, which was passed by France's lower house last week, would both make it legal to break open DRM technologies and also force music download services to only sell music files that would work on any digital music player. Both of these conditions rub Apple the wrong way because songs sold by iTunes can only be played back on the iPod, and, more importantly, the law would allow consumers to break songs out of their DRM wrapper and share them more easily (sharing and downloading would still be illegal, but with relatively low fines). Apple has called the proposed law "state-sponsored piracy."

[via MobileMag]

GoDaddy.com, known for its tasteful, chaste, kid-friendly ads is sponsoring over 50 podcasts on the PodShow Network, an aggregator of podcasts. GoDaddy's ads and sponsorship will appear in multiple podcasts and throughout the site. The press release is chock-full of zingers like "Advertising 2.0" and "the power of many voices discussing one brand." If podcasting sticks around, then certainly its monetized future lies in advertising of this kind - rolling out spots across multiple shows among a family of products and brands. It's the equivalent of sponsoring a night of bands at a concert, or a family of blogs all sharing money with Google Ad Words. At some point, NBC will have 70 podcasts (alright, maybe more like 7), and they will all have a coordinated ad campaign such as the one GoDaddy and PodShow are claiming to have done first. More power to 'em.

Of course, with all this new media being flung hither and yon, the bigger issue is "Why are these broadcast ads?" That is, why are all the members of PodShow's audience being given the same thing? Of course, it makes sense for a little minnow like PodShow to jump on a big fat ad contract, but this all highlights the fact that advertising is still delivered in a broadcast fashion but the audience is receiving content in a narrowcast manner. The audience is pulling down their podcasts, picking and choosing quixotically, but their ads are served from the same pool. Where is narrowcast advertising? Where are ad insertions based on individual users? THAT is the future: ads served in podcasts, webcasts, and digital broadcasts changed to suit each user.

[via Podcasting News]

The Christian Music Trade Association (CMTA) officially backed HR 4861, otherwise known as the Audio Broadcast Flag Licensing Act of 2006, according to a story in Billboard Radio Monitor. Teaming up with its sister organization, the Gospel Music Association, the CMTA issued resolutions to the Commerce and Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate and the FCC supporting HR 4861, stating, "...with new recording devices capable of recording satellite radio broadcasts and digital broadcasts from terrestrial radio stations, we are concerned that further damage will be inflicted on copyright owners and in turn, the record labels, musicians, recording artists, recording engineers, record store owners and others employed in gospel music." The resolution is similar to one the Gospel Music Association put their name on last year alongside AFTRA and the RIAA. The CMTA is also running an anti-piracy campaign with the slogan "Millions of Wrongs Don't Make it Right."

Podcast aggregator, producer, and distributor PodTech.net received $5.5 million in Series A funding from 2 venture capitalist firms and Silicon Valley angel investors. PodTech.net focuses their business on PR-oriented podcasts for their corporate clients who include Intel, Juniper, Yahoo, Symantec, IBM, and Maxtor. Their flagship shows are called InfoTalk and PodTech News, and feature interviews with executives at the companies who sponsor PodTech, and others, such as VCs, the CEOs of interesting companies, and hotshot IT people. It's all very incestuous and nerdy, but it's a good way to push your company's softer PR efforts and put a more human face (voice) on topics that might not otherwise fight for bandwidth in the traditional business communication space. Guerilla PR? "Have mic will travel?" Hmmm... Anyhoo, I hope they use some of that money to better organize their website.

[via Podcasting News]

Sony introduced new XM-Ready component stereos and home theaters in a box (HTiB) at their annual dealer event in Las Vegas this week. The CMT-HPR99XM and the MHC-GX570XM  Hi-Fi component systems have the XM Connect and Play port, which lets you hook up one of these to tune into satellite radio - a subscription, of course, is still required, but note that the antenna is a nominal $20. Costs for the XM-enabled Hi-Fi's range from $299 to $499, and they'll be released in April. Sony also added the Connect and Play port to their Dream System HTiB. The DAV-FX500, listing at $599, and the DAV-FX900W, listing at $899, both come with Connect and Play ports and are scheduled for release in May.

[via TWICE]

After an analyst lowered his rating from Buy to Neutral, share prices of international satellite radio service Worldspace fell 21% on Friday to $9.15, down 37% so far this year. "We cannot recommend purchase until acceptable price points and churn rates become more apparent," the analyst said. Worldspace is the only provider of satellite radio outside of North America, South Korea, and Japan, broadcasting to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. XM took a $25 million stake in Worldspace last year before they went public, and they currently operate stations with Worldcast that are broadcast to their American subscribers. Worldspace claims that they are responsible for 10% of XM's original content and music programming. Worldspace offers channels such as CNNi, BBC, NPR, Fox News, Fox Sports, Virgin Radio UK, as well as Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Nigerian, and French programming.