March 25, 2008
XM, Sirius Deal Approved by Justice Dept.
The FCC still needs to approve the merger by the two satellite radio broadcasters, XM and Sirius: This merger has a few major impacts on terrestrial radio, especially HD Radio broadcasts. First, the merger presumes there's enough competition to make it reasonable to allow the two firms to join. The firms argued that Internet radio and HD Radio and "iPods" were enough competition to provide choices to consumers and keep prices lower. Without them competing with each other, they could focus more on making better, cheaper equipment and providing better programming. (It's true that the two firms' doomed themselves by spending ridiculous sums of money for exclusive sports deals--billions in all--without anything like the revenue curve from those customers to justify it.) The other impact on HD Radio is that the final agreements will likely require certain gimmes to the terrestrial radio world. I'm not sure what those will be yet, but it's likely that XM and Sirius will have to stay out of certain businesses and give certain assurances about their behavior backed by fines. Of course, the biggest irony of "satellite" radio is that so much of it is beamed from ground stations. Yup, that's right. The satellite operators are allowed to rebroadcast on the ground, and they do in cities where their satellite signals would be just barely above the noise threshold.February 4, 2008
HD Radio Sales Restated
Industry analyst says HD Radio sales were far lower than previously stated and projected: Mark Ramsay of hear2.0 and Mercury Radio Research writes in a blog post a few days ago that while iBiquity claimed 200,000 digital AM/FM equipped radios were sold in 2006 and 1m to 1.5m would be sold in 2007, the actual numbers were far lower: 40,000 in 2006 and 330,000 in 2007. The 2008 estimate is now 500,000.
This is not surprising but is disappointing. I was always dubious about the claim of 200,000 radios sold in 2006, because there just weren't that many models or radios out there. I spoke to all the manufacturers, and if 200,000 were sold, they've have been jumping up and down, even split over the four or five companies selling receivers (car and otherwise) in late 2006 when I reviewed five tabletop radios that were relatively new or about to hit the market.
The 2007 number seemed ludicrous to me; the 330,000 figure is much more likely because in 2007, you could buy dealer-installed HD Radio units for cars, and at least one decent inexpensive car radio (< $200) was available with HD Radio. The 330,000 figure is probably 70 to 80 percent automotive, I'd guess.
I'm not hearing any good news about HD Radio at the moment, despite more companies selling products, and the whole iPod integration into very specific system setups.
July 3, 2007
Finally, Some Sales Numbers
The Washington Post rounds up the state of HD, and reveals some sales: The HD Digital Radio Alliance, the broadcasters group promoting the new standard (and a rather bland set of not-competitive-in-each-market secondary FM broadcasts) said that about 200,000 HD Radios were sold in 2006 and 1.5m are expected to sell this year. I find that rather hard to believe given cost, availability, and anecdotal reports from retailers and manufacturers. Still, alliance has little reason to inflate this figure, because if they have, other retail sales tracking will eventually reveal that.
HD Radio can't reach a mass audience until it's built into mobile devices and found as a cheap or default feature in factory-installed mid-range cars.
April 26, 2007
New HD Radio Rebate Program: $40 Off Most Radios
iBiquity has launched a new rebate program for digital radio receivers: The $40 rebate is valid for radios purchased April 29 to July 3, 2007. All HD Radio receivers excepting Yamaha's high-end home entertainment system appear to be on the list, including a number of radios not yet released indicating a lot in the shipment pipeline for this summer.
April 20, 2007
Best Buy to Stock, Promote HD Radio Receivers
All 832 Best Buy stores will offer HD Radio education and receivers: The announcement, which iBiquity alerted me to in advance of its formal Monday release, is part of the growing effort on the part of the HD Radio Alliance, a group of large broadcasters, iBiquity, and radio makers to increase public awareness as more radios hit the market at increasingly lower prices.
Update: Here's the press release.
March 23, 2007
Sirius, XM Applaud IBOC Decision
As might be expected, the two satellite giants love the HD Radio decision: Sirius and XM need to demonstrate a strong set of competitive markets to their offerings in order to convince the FCC and other governmental bodies to approve a merger. While castigating HD Radio as a not-even-also-ran in the past, they now must praise it. There are some ownership overlaps, with Clear Channel having investments in both iBiquity and XM.