Ibiquity Lowers Fees

[Chuck]

Today, I see on several news services that Ibiquity has decided to lower the primary licensing fee to $10,000 for all new stations. I'm guessing the selling must be getting harder once you run out of stations that are owned by your investors, or who got grants from CPB.

I know that news would make me all "warm & fuzzy" if I'd signed up last fall for $35,000.

 

[NE Miss Radio]

Today, I see on several news services that Ibiquity has decided to lower the primary licensing fee to $10,000 for all new stations. I'm guessing the selling must be getting harder once you run out of stations that are owned by your investors, or who got grants from CPB.

I know that news would make me all "warm & fuzzy" if I'd signed up last fall for $35,000.

Me too, but only in the back of my pants.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Today, I see on several news services that Ibiquity has decided to lower the primary licensing fee to $10,000 for all new stations. I'm guessing the selling must be getting harder once you run out of stations that are owned by your investors, or who got grants from CPB.

I know that news would make me all "warm & fuzzy" if I'd signed up last fall for $35,000.

Either you or "several news services" got the story wrong. From the iNiquity press release:

"Per the terms of the program, any radio broadcast group not currently licensed under a previous iBiquity Digital station conversion incentive program will have their primary audio license fees capped at $10K per station (HD Radio license fees are scheduled to increase to $15K per station in July 2007 and then to $25K in July 2008).

"Qualifying groups will commit to license and convert stations under the following terms:

--All group stations currently licensed with iBiquity Digital must be converted under the existing license terms;
--At least one group station not already converted must be converted by December 31, 2007;
--50 percent of all group stations with revenues in excess of $300,000 must be converted by December 31, 2010 based on a schedule outlined in the License Commitment Agreement (LCA);
--$2,000 of the $10,000 license fee for each station committed under the incentive is due by September 30, 2007. The remaining $8,000 for each station is due at the time the station is licensed."

 

[Chuck]

"Per the terms of the program, any radio broadcast group not currently licensed under a previous iBiquity Digital station conversion incentive program will have their primary audio license fees capped at $10K per station (HD Radio license fees are scheduled to increase to $15K per station in July 2007 and then to $25K in July 2008).

Well I think $10,000 is a new discount price. I got that from the NAB daily e-news service. I believe that Radio Magazine sent a similar email today. The first sentence is what was what they quoted. Of course, both sources are part of the Ibiquity Pom-Pom Section.

I’m under the impression they were asking $30,000 for the license, unless you had been a very early adopter. In that case, I believe the licensing fee was about $5000, IIRC. Of course, once they get you signed on, your rates may very well increase.

 

[700WLW]

Today, I see on several news services that Ibiquity has decided to lower the primary licensing fee to $10,000 for all new stations. I'm guessing the selling must be getting harder once you run out of stations that are owned by your investors, or who got grants from CPB.

I know that news would make me all "warm & fuzzy" if I'd signed up last fall for $35,000.

Obviously, this is just a desperate move on iNiquity's part, to get stations to sign up - most of the HD stations are owned by the Cartel, and of the few AM stations that have signed up, many have abandoned IBOC.

 

[SUPERCASTER]

Today, I see on several news services that Ibiquity has decided to lower the primary licensing fee to $10,000 for all new stations. I'm guessing the selling must be getting harder once you run out of stations that are owned by your investors, or who got grants from CPB.

I know that news would make me all "warm & fuzzy" if I'd signed up last fall for $35,000.

Either you or "several news services" got the story wrong. From the iNiquity press release:

"Per the terms of the program, any radio broadcast group not currently licensed under a previous iBiquity Digital station conversion incentive program will have their primary audio license fees capped at $10K per station (HD Radio license fees are scheduled to increase to $15K per station in July 2007 and then to $25K in July 2008).

"Qualifying groups will commit to license and convert stations under the following terms:

--All group stations currently licensed with iBiquity Digital must be converted under the existing license terms;
--At least one group station not already converted must be converted by December 31, 2007;
--50 percent of all group stations with revenues in excess of $300,000 must be converted by December 31, 2010 based on a schedule outlined in the License Commitment Agreement (LCA);
--$2,000 of the $10,000 license fee for each station committed under the incentive is due by September 30, 2007. The remaining $8,000 for each station is due at the time the station is licensed."

I guess that means that the "killer app." for FM, multicasting HD2 (etc.), is much more.

I hear that much higher quality, more versatile, software defined radios, that can be programmed to receive DRM, FMeXtra, HD, and almost anything else are on their way, at lower prices. It seems HD Radio is no "defacto standard" at all.