Re: [IRCA] Another perspective on AM IBOC, from the broadcasters' mailing list

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

kevin redding wrote:
> I have a much darker view of corporations and government. I can see  
> iBiquity and the many corporations that fund them pay whomever they  
> have to in order to get their way.
> 
> I can see a lot of money changing hands to make it happen.

But where's that money supposed to be coming from, and what's the 
motivation for whoever's providing it to be spending it?

Ibiquity is NOT, contrary to the apparent belief here, a very big 
company at all. I'm not even sure they've hit the 100-employee mark yet, 
and while their revenue figures aren't public, an educated guess (based 
on the supposed $40 cut they get from each receiver sold and the $10K or 
so they get from each station licensing the system) would be that they 
didn't bring in more than a few million dollars last year in gross revenues.

That's not exactly Halliburton-level money there. And furthermore, I'm 
still not seeing anything to contradict my observation that the 
broadcast companies that make up much of Ibiquity's investor base have 
nothing to gain, and potentially a lot to lose, from a forced digital 
conversion.

(Don't forget that a big chunk of the TV broadcast community opposed 
forced DTV conversion, too; what tipped that over the edge was the 
spectrum-auction revenue that doesn't exist in the digital radio 
conversion.)

> I could be wrong, but I can also point to Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney,  
> Jack Abrahamoff, the congressman from NOLA Jefferson and a long list  
> to make my point. Money does change hands every day. Usually its to  
> the detriment of the public.

But once you dig into cases like those, there's always an economic 
motivation (if not always a legal one) behind it. The 
Abramoff/Ney/Cunningham case, at its base, was about casino operators 
trying to quash competition. The big boys of radio have pretty much 
already quashed their competition within the broadcast industry. Where's 
their economic motivation to force a conversion that could send much of 
their audience fleeing to newer competitors like WiMax or MediaFLO? I'm 
not seeing it.

s
_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx