R23 Information Services #119

"Interactive Webcasting"? The Second Circuit Weighs In

commlawblog.com

CBS Radio: Last.fm Broadcasting

dailywireless

Will Internet Radio Save HD Radio?

audiographics

Indie Rock Enhanced With Mildew

nytimes

Facebook makes money, tops 300 million users

Reuters

R23 Information Services #118

Last.fm Scrobbles coming to a radio near you on October 5

arstechnica

Why the WiMAX vs. LTE Battle Isn't a Battle

wimax.com

AT&T Moving to HSPA+

dailywireless

Portland Sucks shows glimmers of pdx.fm

siliconflorist

Twitter expands rules to allow advertising

reuters

R23 Information Services #114

HD Radio sure doesn't mean high definition
sfgate

Look How Ubiquitous Wi-Fi Has Become
nytimes

Introducing Rhapsody on the iPhone
realnetworksblog

Apple and AT&T 'struck VoIP deal'
bbc

China Unicom in deal for Apple's iPhone
reuters

R23 Information Services #103

WOXY is moving to Austin
woxy.com

Mediafly (read podcast) channel coming to Roku Digital Media Player
cnet

WiMAX Moves Forward in Taiwan
WiMAX blog

The decade's 25 biggest tech flops (HD and XM make the list)
cnet

Coldplay First To Sell 1 Million Digital Albums
hypebot

Radio23 Information Services #75

Survey Shows Popularity of Internet Radio, Regular Radio Continues Holding Its Audience

Google & Universal Announce VEVO Channel hypebot

Manage Your Social Networks entrepreneur

HD Radio Crying Out to Be Heard nyTimes

the end of the music album as the organizing principle pamplemoose

Alternatives to HD radio

From DIYMedia:

Believe it or not, "HD Radio" is not the only digital audio broadcast system in the world. Alternatives do exist: one of the most promising is Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) (which should not be confused with "digital rights management," a whole other (evil) animal), which has been jointly developed and deployed by some 30 countries around the world. It's an open-source standard, which has the potential to operate on either new or incumbent spectrum, and contains the potential to practically advance the service terrestrial broadcasting provides; it is not just a "better than analog" standard, featuring chimerical vaporware such as "buy buttons" for the download of digital music - services for which radio was not initially designed.

At present, while Digital Radio Mondiale is gaining traction around the world, it's all but been ruled out as a potential alternative to HD Radio in the United States, though that may be changing. A coalition of spectrum experts has been formed to advance the notion that broadcasters should be afforded the choice of picking between HD and DRM. As of now, this advocacy is restricted toward the possible deployment of Digital Radio Mondiale on the shortwave and AM bands only; although an FM version of the technology is under development, HD's relatively slow but steady adoption by U.S. FM broadcasters may make it a tough sell in the marketplace (even though some transmitter manufacturers are making dual-compatible HD/DRM transmitters, and there's no reason why receiver manufacturers couldn't follow suit).

On a related note, a coalition of public interest advocates, including the Prometheus Radio Project, Benton Foundation, Free Press, Media Access Project, New America Foundation, and the Center for Digital Democracy filed a petition for reconsideration of the FCC's latest report and order regarding the rollout of HD Radio. [Disclaimer: I provided some minor technical consultation to the authors of this document.] The petition asks the Commission to better justify the spectrum windfall it has handed to incumbent broadcasters - essentially letting them double or triple their footprints (and subsequent programming capacity) with no reasonable justification or renumeration (either in the form of cash or public interest program obligations).

It's anyone's guess whether the FCC will take these substantive critiques seriously and better defend its rationale, but my inkling is this (in conjunction like the coalition mentioned above) may be just the first volley in a long (albeit belated) public campaign for better accountability from both broadcasters and regulators - defining just what the "public interest" means in a digital radio world, and whether or not the anointed technological path to that world is the right one.

"Free" radio not so much in HD

From DIY Media:

Fresh off the heels of the FCC's veritable rubber-stamping of the "HD" digital radio protocol, the broadcasters behind iBiquity's technology are wasting no time in preparing to lock down its content. Think about this the next time an NAB executive testifies on Capitol Hill and proclaims the virtue of so-called "free" over-the-air radio.

NDS, a maker of digital media encryption technology, recently signed a deal with iBiquity to provide HD Radio with an encrypted content-delivery system that effectively institutes subscriptions capability on digital radio.

"RadioGuard" is derived from NDS' "VideoGuard" technology, which it claims will allow radio stations to provide "more choices to their listeners, a broader selection of content and more segmentation opportunities for advertisers, all of which provide additional revenue-generating possibilities."

"Consumers," says NDS, "will be able to take advantage of services not currently offered in today’s terrestrial or satellite radio environments. These services include pay-per-listen options for live concerts and events, improved radio reading services for the blind, private channels for emergency operators, and opt-in events sponsored by advertisers." It should be noted that some of these, such as radio reading services for the blind, are already offered for free, provided the listener purchases a special receiver designed to separate unencrypted subcarrier signals from analog FM broadcasts.

Given that there's such extremely limited bandwidth available in the HD Radio environment - about 140 kilohertz in the FM "extended hybrid" analog/digital configuration - it's difficult to see how stations would continue to multicast multiple free streams of program content while also offering up something for those willing to pay for it. Something will have to give; data compression solutions only go so far.

Of course, terrestrial radio needs to come up with program content that's worth paying for. But that's beside the point. Up until now, all AM and FM radio was free - you just paid for the cost of the receiver, though digital ones still cost in the three-figure range, and those currently being sold will not be compatible with NDS' "conditional access" technology.

Now, perhaps, we will witness the beginning of the fencing-off what used to be fully public spectrum, for purposes that only serve a public willing to pay. Terrestrial radio's never been set up like that. The same thing has already happened with DTV, though, so I guess its coming should be no real surprise.

Although the FCC has not formally ruled on exactly how digital broadcasters may split their spectrum up into free and pay-for-play services, this deal is obviously a move by iBiquity to implement the capability in order to set the ground work for official endorsement. After all, that is essentially how HD Radio itself was developed and deployed.

However, unlike DTV, the proprietary nature of the fundamental HD broadcast standard has knock-on effects with regard to the features the standard will allow. iBiquity is thus in a position to define the range of add-on features available in the digital environment, like "conditional access" services. In this case, if you want to offer subscription-only content on terrestrial radio, you'll have to go through RadioGuard - no alternate protocols allowed.

In this light, this latest development shouldn't be heralded as a great leap forward for digital broadcast technology, but as another step in the direction of conditioning the public to pay for a medium that has historically been free.