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From This Month's Wired: Stern Picked The Wrong New Broadcast Technology
Wired magazine continues to be right on when it comes to assessing the digital world. Great insights and a must-read.
In their latest issue, they weigh in about Howard Stern's move to satellite radio. They agree he needed to make the move to new media; they just say he chose the wrong medium. Instead of satellite, Wired thinks podcasting was the better way to go. This way, Stern would still be available for the masses without FCC scrutiny while generating an innovative new media revenue stream via podcast downloads through, say, HowardStern.com. In a sense, he could have become the first celebrity independent podcaster and truly show King of All Media muscle. Now, the King's domain is much, much smaller.
Here are some highlights from Wired:
"Satellite radio is a pretty good technology that's attracting a respectable audience primarily through excellent programming. But let's be clear — satellite doesn't hold a candle to podcasting, and not even Howard Stern can change that.
Sirius signed Stern for $500 million... It's hard to argue with a half billion incentives. But — aside from cash — it's hard to see what satellite could do for Stern that podcasting couldn't do better. If his primary motivation for ditching traditional radio wasn't money but escape from the FCC's censors, the internet would have been a better choice, hands down.
Podcasting's reach...towers over satellite.
To be fair, Stern claims Sirius is trying to offer an online stream of his show, but even then, there'll be no way to subscribe to it in a downloadable format. The promised stream will be delivered via a Sirius receiver, so it won't be available in a readily consumable form...
As for getting the show to users without computers, Stern could have set the wheels in motion to distribute his show via Wi-Fi hotspots to simple, inexpensive MP3 players... It's not a perfect solution, but neither is making people pay $100 plus $10 per month to listen to a show that was free a few weeks ago.
It's interesting to run some hypothetical numbers on what Stern might rake in as a podcaster — for example, through micropayments. If 3 million listeners paid $3.50 a month to tune in, he'd take in more than $120 million a year on subscriptions alone. That's $500 million in just over four years."
Did Stern make the right choice? It sure would be a helluva lot easier to listen to him with my iPod...
Entire article at Wired.
posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, January 24, 2006,
