Jump forward another 10 or so years and today the U.S. is pitched in a new battle over the same kind of telecom development, where again, the pie grows and numerous competitors thrive, side-by-side. In this case, the new player is satellite radio, with more than seven mil. subscribers, and its competition comes in the form of traditional analog AM & FM radio, as well as burgeoning services like MP3 players, terrestrial radio, and video- and Internet-to-the-vehicle.
In this competitive vein, many believe that the future of satellite radio is lukewarm, at best. They point primarily to the competition sat radio is already beginning to experience inside the passenger cab of any car, truck or RV, or on the mobile, office or home fronts (and even in Starbucks). These critics believe satellite radio’s jump start will be keenly muted, especially with the advent of 1) MP3 players, such as Apple’s iPOD, 2) soon-to-be nearly ubiquitous digital terrestrial radio services, 3) Internet-supplied data content, and 4) video-to-the-kids-in-the-back-of-the-SUV.
An iPOD-like device requires a fair sum of work (and time and money) to find and
download one’s playlist, and then constant monitoring (and more time and more money)
to ensure the right choice of songs finds the screen. In addition, as The Wall
Street Journal’s top tech writer, Walter Mossberg, noted in an October 12, 2005,
column, the new iPOD adapter devices raise significant safety concerns tied to hands
off the wheel and constant and regular viewing of the selection screen that keeps
one’s eyes away from the road ahead (or behind). Mossberg also bemoans the fact that
the new iPOD adapters involve unsightly wires and one or two hardware devices too
many.
The next major competitor to satellite radio is the crystal clear delivery of AM and
FM programming in the form of digital terrestrial radio (AKA HD radio). Lead by Columbia, MD-based iBiquity Digital, this market segment is providing the infrastructure used by AM and FM broadcasters to deliver, digitally, existing and new radio channels. Notes iBiqity’s VP, OEM Business Development, Jeff
McGannon, “In Detroit [Michigan], 23 stations are broadcasting our HD radio service,
and nine of those are broadcasting an additional channel on the same frequency.
Right now, our service reaches about six of ten Americans; in two years, we’ll reach
nine out of ten.” Viewing the same growth idea from a population POV, McGannon
claims that within a couple of years, everywhere there is an AM and FM station,
there will be HD radio.
http://carmelgroup.com/publications/document/growing_another_telecom_pie/
