"Frank Dresser" wrote in message
...

"David Eduardo" wrote in message
t...



My comment is that no broadcaster is interested in paid audio programming
services, as there is no useful economic model to be found.

What is the useful economic model for IBOC as it currently exists?

Expanded program offerings of the second tier of formats. For example, KLVE
in LA just launched "Amor Celestial" on its HD-2 and is providing the
market's first Contemporary Christian format in Spanish. In Texas, 5 markets
that can not sustain a main channel Tejano format have one on HD2.


Sure, there's no broadcaster interest in starting up pay radio right now.
Hardly anybody has a new generation IBOC radio, and only a limited
percentage of those who do would pay. That's obvious. But let's pretend
the day will come in which lots of people, maybe even most people, have
IBOC
radios. Would broadcasters still be as disinterested in pay radio?

The most FM stations one owner can have in a market is 5. That means,
without a significant sacrifice of quality, 5 HD-2 channels. Given the cost
of XM or Sirius is about a dime a channel, that means that the radio
offerings would be worth a half-buck a month. The costs of billing and such
exceed the potential fee. The only way this might work is with ultra-niche,
like Cambodian in LA... something a broadcaster could not do on their own...
so the channel would have to be rented out. At that point, using FMeXtra is
better.

Of course, their presumed future disinterest would be understandable if
they
start making buckets of cash IBOCing second tier programming and
simulcasts.

Terrestrial radio stations know the ad-supported radio model. It is
ingenuous right now to think that local stations could develop a
subscription model, sell it and make any money.