HDTV TELEVISIONS

AOL Radio, Pandora, Slacker and Last.fm are a few of the online radio services which have become popular these last few years. Many of these are also accessible on portable devices such as mobile phones. Does this mean the end of traditional radio stations? I will look at the effect of online radio on the radio landscape.

Local radio seems to be having a hard time in today’s radio landscape with competing satellite and online radio services taking away listeners by supplying commercial-free music and entertainment. The internet has enabled access to a virtually infinite number of online radio stations.

Numerous online radio providers like Pandora are nowadays accessible on portable devices including mobile phones and other wireless audio products via suitable apps. This adds mobility to online radio which has still been the trump card of local radio stations.

AOL Radio utilizes CBS radio as its broadcasting platform. It comes with in excess of 200 music channels. Additionally it offers access to over 150 local CBS radio stations. Listeners can also create their own customized radio stations at the CBS radio “play.it” website and save each track for playback on an iPod by employing 3-rd party software iGetMusic.

Pandora and other online radio providers have similarly started to offer customized music. The user can enter music-related details such as artist, track or album name. These channels will then choose tracks which are similar to the information entered. Thus far, however, competing music services have fallen short to offer similarly fully customized radio channels.

Is the extinction of local radio near? The growth of competition from satellite and online radio has started to take away listeners from local radio stations. Conventional radio appears to have a difficult time to halt this trend. Online radio is particularly useful for niche broadcasters who have been unable to broadcast due to the high cost and licensing of frequency space.

While the variety of stations is a benefit to listeners, it is at the same time diluting market share and online radio broadcasters are finding it hard to draw a reasonably big number of listeners and be lucrative. At the same time, on the other hand, there is less pressure to insert commercials due to the lower expenses of broadcasting compared with traditional stations. This has made online radio content more interesting than terrestrial radio.

Local programming such as news and local events, nonetheless, will remain one of the big advantages of local radio. Moreover, local radio is now improving the audio quality by using digital broadcast technologies versus conventional FM broadcasts which has been a big benefit of online radio up to now. It is difficult to predict a clear winner in the battle between online and local radio since both offer their own exclusive content and high mobility which are the vital aspects that will decide the destiny of each service.

More From hdtvtelevisions

• Why The iPad Is More Of A PDA
• Music Without Cable Clutter? – The New Generation Of Wireless Audio Transmitter Devices
• The Pros And Cons Of Free Dish Tv

hdtvtelevisions Recommends

• QUICK TAKE: THE RETURN OF GLEE  (remotepatrolled)
• VIDEO SPECIAL: TV ON THE RADIO  (remotepatrolled)

Ask hdtvtelevisions To Recommend Your Posts

Comments are closed.