Re: Vikings upset Karmazin

[Brian Vita <brian_vita@cssinc.com>]

At 02:23 AM 4/24/00 -0400, umar@nerodia.wcrb.com wrote:


>On Sun, 23 Apr 2000 Dib9@aol.com wrote:
>
> > I think Mel and CBS are missing the boat on Internet broadcasting.
>
>No, Mel's made the right decision.
>
>Internet "broadcasting" is not and probably never will be profitable. To
>the extent that people do listen to it, it promotes audience
>fragmentation. However, most people won't listen to it; not only does it
>lack two of radio's principal advantages (it's not free nor is it
>portable) but it's unreliable. Net congestion and server capacity limit
>the number of people that can receive a given station's streaming audio,
>and that makes it likely that many listeners clicking on their favorite
>station's "Listen Live!" icon will hear intermittent audio or worse yet,
>nothing at all.

I'll bet very similar arguments were made when that new fangled "radio with 
pictures" device came out.  I will grant you that Internet radio is not big 
right now but its still in its infancy.  I'll bet that Internet radio has 
more listeners than HDTV has viewers right now.  Give it a few years.

I agree that he's making a mistake. If he hopped on board now, he would get 
in very inexpensively and establish himself by virtue of a presence over 
time.  If he waits, say five years, he'll either have to acquire an 
established property or spend big bucks to promote and launch a new one.

As for the backend, speed and capacity of servers have been increasing 
rapidly.  Installations of xDSL, ISDN and cable modems have exceeded 
projections.  Wouldn't it be ironic to listen to Internet radio on a 
wireless Internet connection?

Brian


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