News Sound Bites

Blu-Ray BD profile 1.1, any good? Only two players can use it right now anyway...

Sony sees the light, and drops DRM, is the last major label to do so!

Sirius denied merger, in the red $1.3 billion, subscribers up 38%, good year?

Chuck D wants Def Jam, has 4 point plan to fix it!

Variety: Hollywood discovers Voice Acting more than just "talking"...

CNet slams Washington Post for not correcting RIAA story.

Guardian delivers HUGE collection of niche music sites!

Upgrading your computer monitor might cause DRM conflict in Vista, block Netflix, invalidate other legitimate purchases, only bother paying customers...

Deaf Porn? (via Wired, links on following site might be NSFW)

Avoid "Red Sauce" on your iTunes, buy the real thing instead...

Awesome FCC Info Regarding Sirius/XM Merger - I Didn't Write This Edition

Hey all, this is a follow up to my previous story about the FCC, Sirius, and XM. An Anonymous commenter left this great comment with some awesome info and links. Rather than try and write up a post (or series of posts, come on we all know publishing numbers matter, god bless Analytics), I'm just going to post this up as my favorite comment of the week.

Anonymous said...

After a year of heavy promotions, there is no consumer interest in HD Radio:

"Sirius, XM, and HD: Consumer interest reality check"

"While interest in satellite radio is diminishing, interest in HD shows no signs of a pulse."

http://www.hear2.com/2007/02/sirius_xm_and_h.html

"What kind of digital radio are listeners searching for?"

http://www.hear2.com/2006/10/what_kind_of_di.html

"HD Radio on the Offense"

"But after an investigation of HD Radio units, the stations playing HD, and the company that owns the technology; and some interviews with the wonks in DC, it looks like HD Radio is a high-level corporate scam, a huge carny shill."

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-03-07/music/hd-radio-on-the-offense

"RW Opinion: Rethinking AM’s future"

"Making AM-HD work well as a long-term investment is seen as an expensive and risky challenge for most stations and their owners. There is the significant downside of potential new interference to some of their own AM analog listeners as well as listeners of adjacent-channel stations."

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html

April 1, 2007 6:22 AM

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FCC might be holding up Sirius / XM Merger ???

According to the FCC, apparently it's now BAD for the consumer when media outlets consolidate ... which is funny? I seem to remember back during the Michael Powell days that media consolidation was some how GOOD for the consumer ... weird...

Anywho, apparently NOW, it's bad so it's causing friction for the Sirius/XM merger. The argument was that this merger wouldn't affect customers since there was a proliferation of competition from services like HD Radio, and products like iPods ... neither of which have ANYTHING to do with satellite radio ...

"A recent FCC analysis of satellite competition determined that the relevant market for satellite radio consists solely of Sirius and XM...[and that]...other audio services such as terrestrial radio (including HD Radio), iPods, and Internet radio are not competitive substitutes."


READ THE REST HERE


I totally agree with the FCC for once. Saying iPods provide adequate competition is (to me) kinda like saying DVD's are direct competition for Digital Cable.
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