Clear Channel plans to take first steps toward extending its radio brands through podcasting, as part of a new Internet strategy set to unfold over the next several months at radio s largest operator. Clear Channel plans to make five-minute, ad-supported segments available for download from station sites.
The company has its eye on an online advertising market that is expected to reach $11 billion this year, an increase of 30% from last year.
Clear Channel also expects to add original video programming to 200 of its stations’ Web sites next Monday, according to CNet. The motivation is to get a share of online advertising spending, which is growing much more quickly radio ad spending.
Clear Channel’s new video programs, called “Stripped,” will feature top artists Rob Thomas, John Legend, Gavin DeGraw and Jesse McCartney in exclusive studio sessions that will be streamed online in CD-quality sound and television quality video, the company said.
“Stripped,” fashioned along the lines of MTV’s “Unplugged” and AOL Music’s “Sessions” will be offered to Clear Channel’s 200 stations across the country, which already streams its on-air broadcasts over the Internet.
By May 1, the company is slated to add another 100 stations that will feature web casts of its on-air programming.
This summer, Clear Channel may also begin Podcasting (Wikipedia), making available downloadable audio files of some of its stations’ morning shows, the report said. The broadcaster’s Web sites may also offer a subscription radio service plus Web sales of music tracks and even ring tones.
Clear Channel is battling Sirius Satellite Radio, which announced a television service for cars and XM Satellite Radio which is supplying traffic info to cars.
Meanwhile, U.S. Internet services provider EarthLink and South Korea’s largest mobile communications company, SK Telecom, on Thursday said they had completed a joint venture deal, SK-EarthLink, in which the companies will enter the U.S. wireless market. It will be funded with $440 million of partner investments over the next three years.
Reuters reports Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service, may be the venture’s main partner, according to an executive familiar with the matter when the deal was first announced in late January.
The EarthLink/SKTelecom/Sprint service reportedly plans to launch in the third quarter of 2005. It aims to attract about 3 million subscribers, or about 2 percent of the U.S. mobile market, by 2009, the companies had said.
What about mobile video?
SmartVideo Technologies announced deals to deliver live and prerecorded TV programs from ABC News, CNBC, MSNBC and The Weather Channel to cell phones equipped with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile operating system, says the Associated Press. The service, priced from $13 to $18 a month, is accessed through a Microsoft Web site featuring other forms of content customized for mobile devices.
Sprint led the charge in this country with MobiTV but Sprint’s slow 40-60kbps service limits frame rates and resolution. Cingular’s EDGE service is faster while their standard speed GPRS resembles a slide show rather than live video. TI will showcase its new OMAP-Vox EDGE Chipset (OMAPV1030) that will deliver enhanced features at a reduced cost.
TI wants to drive mobile digital TV (DTV) to cell phones. TI is a strong supporter of open standards such as DVB-H and ISDB-T to deliver mobile DTV. TI will showcase its mobile WLAN capabilities and several of the 20 handsets and PDAs currently shipping with TI’s three generations of mobile WLAN solutions.
Sprint’s MobiTV service, operated by Idetic, costs about $10/month. RealTV, for $5 a month, lets you stream prerecorded RealVideo clips of news and sports.
It’s not very clear how long users will want to stare at a small screen, or whether they’ll be able to watch anything longer than a few minutes. Wireless providers have asked media companies to produce specialized video clips — brief news reports and “mobisodes,” that run as only a minute or so.
Verizon’s V Cast video clips use Microsoft’s Windows Media Format software on the handsets, either archived or in a streaming media format. The transmission takes 30 seconds or less, and sometimes the video is a bit shaky or choppy. The NBA has video highlights on Verizon’s new V-CAST multimedia service which uses their EV-DO network. Verizon says it’s now available in some 30 metropolitan markets covering a potential 75 million people.
Two of the biggest mobile television developments are yet to come.
Qualcomm also is investing $800 million to launch a national cellular TV service in 2006 over its own spectrum, broadcasting up to 20 channels for wireless carriers to sell their customers.
Qualcomm’s MediaFLO network is capable of carrying up to 100 channels, with as many as 15 of them streaming live video. As a shared resource for U.S. CDMA2000 and WCDMA (UMTS) operators, the network will carry content in the nationwide 700 MHz spectrum (UHF TV channel 55) owned by the CDMA pioneer. Qualcomm plans a one-way broadcast service for mobile users.
Another competitor, Crown Castle, owns 5 MHz of national spectrum in the L band (1670-1675 MHz) and owns, operates and manages over 10,600 wireless communication sites in the U.S.. The have deployed DVB-H technology in a three-site, single-frequency network trial in Pittsburgh. Crown Castle plans to broadcast to millions of mobile users using low powered transmitters on cell towers.
Will it make money? Nobody knows. With 170 million phone users in the United States, something could happen.
MobiTV signed up roughly 100,000 customers who pay $10 a month for more than 20 cable channels. Verizon and Fox won’t reveal the per-mobisode price, but Warner expects to charge as much as $5.99 for each snippet of The OC Inside and will offer the show as part of a $24.99 yearly subscription to a fan club.
Others plan to sell ads. Mobliss, a Seattle marketing firm that also makes original programs, is working with Nike and Coca-Cola to place products into its shows.
