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CBS radio

A

adamgre

Guest
Hi..

As of Friday Feb 12...CBS radio stations are no longer allowed to stream to countries outside the US....if you try to hear a CBS station outside the US...an announcement comes on saying due to costs and regulations..we can no longer stream.....the announcement lasts for 30 seconds and keeps repeating.
 
Looks like they've taken a page out of the UK streaming textbook and shut off their streams to the rest of the world. Just like you can't hear Downtown Radio from Belfast in Milton, now you can't hear WBZ News Radio 1030 from Boston over in Killarney! :-\
 
When Clear Channel pulled the same trick, I wasn't bothered since they don't have any stations that seem worth listening to. However, a few CBS stations...KCBS-AM, KRTH, WCBS AM/FM, KROQ, HFS2...are among my most-listened-to. As a London-based online listener, I'm very annoyed. Globalization in reverse seems like a faulty strategy to me, irrespective of whatever advice the myopic worriers in CBS's legal department may have to offer.
 
Do the AOL and Yahoo! radio stations still stream internationally?

My guess would be no since this really comes down to the current advertisers on CBS's streams don't want to advertise to an audience who lives where they don't, or can't, do business. That, of course, makes international listeners an expense with no significant upside.
 
there are other ways to listen to Europe stations in America and American streams outside of the us. Just gotta find a DX site like global tuners!
 
The irony of this all is that CBS' primary streaming provider is a Canadian company (StreamTheWorld).
 
anyone know why WFAN 660-AM New York was taken off Nobex Radio Companion?
The rest of the New York CBS owned stations are still on there.

--Dave--
 
CBS needs to quickly find a solution to allow its news stations to be heard around the world, as they have been up 'til now... The music heard on its music stations is available (for the most part) in most parts of the world... but Americans who are overseas need to be able to dial in news from Home (and directly from their local areas) without the problems created by this unfortunate decision. Maybe direct feeds from the stations' own websites (in 32k mono for "non-U.S." i.p. addresses, if bandwith is a big deal - still very listenable for talk/news) but not just a complete shutdown.
 
Is the stream through iTunes still available outside the U.S.? It doesn't use the same player, so I'm not sure

-Andrew
 
I apologize for the back-to-back posts...

My stations are also available on Windows Media Player's "Media Guide"... That also doesn't use the same media player, so it *might* be another source that may not be affected by the change.

Would be worth finding out if anyone is outside the border...

-Andrew
 
You are going to find more and more streaming companies eventually blocking international access. The Canadian equivalent to BMI/ASCAP/SESAC is attacking American companies claiming streaming royalties are owed for music streamed in Canada from the US. In theory, every country in the world could start claiming royalties for music streamed in their country from the US or any other country. It becomes another revenue stream for the country's treasury. Another US broadcasting company I know very well is currently being hit up by the Canadian's for streaming royalties. As soon as the technology is in place through their streaming provider, all international streaming will be blocked permanently. Money is tight everywhere. There is no financial benefit to allow any streaming outside the US. It is only an expense. Always follow the money.
 
I suppose they're in their rights to do so, but ... I don't like it. Restricting stuff by country? Seems to go up against everything the Internet stands for.

I like to hear different stations, whether by traveling all over the country (and a few European trips now and then), or by DX'ing mediumwave and shortwave, or Internet streaming. It seems like all of this is being taken away. Too expensive to travel, too much noise and junk (read:IBOC) on the air to DX, and now international streaming is some sort of sin.
 
The problem CBS (and Clear Channel) faced is that there essentially is no way for a radio station to legally stream music from one country to another. The licensing is done country by country. Whatever groups license CBS and/or Clear Channel to stream their signals online within the US have no ability to license them to stream outside the US. It's probably the case that there is no single licensing entity that can grant rights for global streaming of radio.

Quite wise of them to not stream when they don't have the legal right to do so.
 
You guys are so out of touch and clueless. The bottom line is that United States Stations cannot make money from users from outside of the United States.

Advertisers do NOT want to display and streams ads to people in the United Kingdom, etc.

If a station has 65% USA Traffic and 35% Rest of the world traffic.. that 35% rest of the world traffic is a waste of money. USA stations cannot make a penny off foreign listeners.

Why would Sprint, AT&T, Comcast, Olive Garden, Verizon, USA TV Stations, Movie Premiers, Netflix, etc, etc, etc want to show advertisements to listeners in Australia? Get the point? Therefore when USA listeners hear USA Targeted ads... the foreign listeners do not.. or they do and the radio station makes ZILCH from them.

That 35% of non USA traffic is losing the stations a lot of money on bandwidth - that is the bottom line.

Why not block those non USA listeners and save money on bandwidth and then use that money saved on beefing up USA promotions where they can get valuable advertising inventory. In this day and age - it is NOT greed.. it is survival.
 
bamatide said:
You guys are so out of touch and clueless. The bottom line is that United States Stations cannot make money from users from outside of the United States.
Click to expand...

I think that's what about half of us are saying. While it's a nice, feel good, idea to think companies are doing a public service to the rest of the world by offering their streams to everyone, it's just not realistic to think that they had some obligation to serve the world simply on the grounds that they were on the internet. Thinking their motives were purely altruistic isn't realistic either.

Advertisers do NOT want to display and streams ads to people in the United Kingdom, etc.
Click to expand...

Not having listened to streams from outside the US, I can't verify CBS did this, but I know the technology exists to not stream US ads outside of the US. In fact, when I went two counties east of my house last year and fired up the good ol' laptop to listen to some streaming audio, I got St. Louis ads on all of the CBS streams I listened to. I've never heard those ads when streaming at home. The best way to get those streams turned on to the rest of the world is to have advertisers in other countries who want to buy time on those streams. Of course, we're not there yet, and we might not ever be.
 
of course they have the technology to streams ads outside USA - NO ADVERTISER WANTS TO!

Why should a USA Only company want to spend CPM $ on outside USA users? Point blank USA Advertisers do not give a crap about the rest of the world.. Do you actually think radio stations such as cc, cox, cbs, digitally imported, pandora, accuradio, 1club.fm, 181, etc have a staff that can travel all over the world to sell advertising? Most of the internet only stations have a staff of maybe 10-20 people and the real smaller stations only have themselves.

With all respect.. I think you are clueless.

Of course net radio can geo target USA users however no advertiser wants to spend money on non USA listeners... and if USA advertisers are not willing to stream their commercials to non USA listeners - then it is 100% a waste of money for the radio station to use up all of that bandwidth to those listeners if they cannot monetize those listeners.
 
bamatide said:
With all respect.. I think you are clueless.
Click to expand...

If you directed that comment at me, you clearly did not read what I posted. I was not suggesting that CBS stream US ads outside of the US. In fact, I was suggesting exactly the opposite.

Since the technology exists to stream US ads only to the US, they could also stream European ads only to select countries in Europe. However, the demand for European ads would have to exist first. I was trying to tell the people in Europe who are upset over not being able to hear their favorite stations that their best hope for hearing those favorite stations again was for enough European companies to buy ads to air only in Europe on CBS stations' streams. CBS will listen to money. While there's probably not enough demand for that to happen anytime soon, it's more likely than CBS suddenly becoming altruistic and throwing money away just for the sake of others' enjoyment.

By the way, something else I've noticed is that CBS stations, including AOL and Yahoo! stations, will now sleep after streaming one hour. So, each hour, you must mouse over the player, or the station will stop. Clearly, they're trying to curtail royalty and bandwidth costs inside the US as well. I don't know what it's like now, but I remember, even after the first royalty decision, bandwidth used to be substantially more expensive than performance royalties. Granted, this was in a small market with only one bandwidth provider, but a group I worked for from 2001-04 had seven stations and bandwidth costs of $7,000/month. Our streaming provider paid the bandwidth cost in exchange for barter spots, both over the air and over our stream, plus banner ads on the streaming player. Music royalty costs were nowhere near that!
 
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