HD Alliance

[preferprivacy]

Does anyone else think that the heads of eight big radio companies
gathering behind closed doors to allocate who will operate what format in the top 25 markets smacks of collusion?

Surely some headline-hunting Attorney General (Elliot Spitzer where are you!) should look into this.

While the goal might be admirable;
deciding how they will NOT compete on the new HD channels
seems wrong. Very Wrong.

 

[k9ez]

> Does anyone else think that the heads of eight big radio
> companies
> gathering behind closed doors to allocate who will operate
> what format in the top 25 markets smacks of collusion?
>
> Surely some headline-hunting Attorney General (Elliot
> Spitzer where are you!) should look into this.
>
> While the goal might be admirable;
> deciding how they will NOT compete on the new HD channels
> seems wrong. Very Wrong.
>


HUH, I guess you read much more into the announcement than I did.

Even if this was true (and I dont think so) how would deciding about what formats are played have anything to do with collusion? If they were fixing ad prices that would be a different story.

The government (Including the FCC) really dont care what format is run on stations.

 

[preferprivacy]

So only when pricing is involved does is become a legal issue?

When competitors agree to NOT compete,
it only serves the interests of the
owners; not the public.

Now co-promoting HD in a common campaign makes sense,
as does figuring out a consistent way to ID the new stations.

But when they sit down and decide
who will operate what kind of format
(which is how it was described in INSIDE RADIO and ALLACCESS.com)
then it gives me pause.



> > Does anyone else think that the heads of eight big radio
> > companies
> > gathering behind closed doors to allocate who will operate
>
> > what format in the top 25 markets smacks of collusion?
> >
> > Surely some headline-hunting Attorney General (Elliot
> > Spitzer where are you!) should look into this.
> >
> > While the goal might be admirable;
> > deciding how they will NOT compete on the new HD channels
> > seems wrong. Very Wrong.
> >
>
>
> HUH, I guess you read much more into the announcement than I
> did.
>
> Even if this was true (and I dont think so) how would
> deciding about what formats are played have anything to do
> with collusion? If they were fixing ad prices that would be
> a different story.
>
> The government (Including the FCC) really dont care what
> format is run on stations.
>

 

[FMRadio1]

At this point, the big 8 operators have decided to run these HD channels commercial free to attract people to the service. No one is making any money here. It makes no sense for each operator to offer similar formats on HD, at least to this point. If HD takes off and starts to build an audience, you better believe that the big companies will dissolve their alliance, start putting ads on the streams and compete against eachother.

Mike Thomas

> So only when pricing is involved does is become a legal
> issue?
>
> When competitors agree to NOT compete,
> it only serves the interests of the
> owners; not the public.
>
> Now co-promoting HD in a common campaign makes sense,
> as does figuring out a consistent way to ID the new
> stations.
>
> But when they sit down and decide
> who will operate what kind of format
> (which is how it was described in INSIDE RADIO and
> ALLACCESS.com)
> then it gives me pause.