Re: Clear Channel ends streaming broadcasts ... please explain

["Aaron 'Bishop' Read" <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 02:57 PM 1/4/2003, tony schinella wrote:

>However, what if instead of blocking broadcasting via the Web, radio
>stations said "Okay, well, we will only broadcast artists and companies who
>waive the Webcasting fees." Have any of them thought of trying this as a
>solution to the stalemate? Granted, I know we are talking about mostly huge
>multi-national corporations here. But if the stations have already paid,
>they have already paid - whether it is broadcasting via the airwaves, Web,
>or a speaker set up on the sidewalk.

The thought has been put out there that Clear Channel (and probably only 
CC) could use its political and economic clout to force ASCAP/BMI/SESAC and 
RIAA to drop this DMCA nonsense and state that their standard broadcasting 
license should cover webcasting as well.

However, this does nothing for the many, many unlicensed broadcasters out 
there (college carrier-current, and other FCC Part 15 stations like 
Allston-Brighton Free Radio)...nor anything for the many webcast-only 
"stations" out there, too.  According to Live365, there are several 
thousand in the latter category.

More relevant however, is that the return on investment (ROI) for streaming 
is very very low.  For each additional listener, you must pay more (in 
bandwidth costs) to serve them.   For a "little guy" this might be worth it 
since you're not trying to serve a huge population, and webcasting may be a 
necessary augmentation to a limited Class A or Class D FM signal.   But 
even in those cases you're not making a lot - if any - profit off your 
webstream...it's really more just a cost of doing business.   But for a 
huge entity like Clear Channel...they're not going to burn millions in 
political and real capital to fight to get something that's not really 
making them much money.  Remember, this is "Cheap Channel" we're talking 
about here.


_________________________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read       aread@speakeasy.net
Fried Bagels Consulting   www.friedbagels.com
AOL-IM: ReadAaron         Brighton, MA 02135