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School of Communications
faculty members Don Grady and Connie Book have been awarded a $5,000
National Association of Broadcasters grant to study satellite radio.
Here's a look
at information from the abstract for the project:
XMSR and Sirius
Radio are current providing more than 1.5 million customers imported,
national radio content via satellite (Joyce, 2003). The consumer
electronics industry identified satellite radio as one of the "hottest"
Christmas gifts of 2003 (www.ce.org, 2003). Much like the 1990s
launch of DirecTV and the Dish Network, broadcasters are faced with
new competition and early warning signs suggest this fight will
be a tough one.
On Jan. 8,
XMSR and Sirius radio announced they would begin inserting local
weather and traffic reports. The National Association of Broadcasters
(NAB) was quick to file an official response, calling the move an
encroachment on the role and function of local, terrestrial radio
(Mediaweek, 2004):
"XM Satellite
Radio's announcement today to provide weather and traffic reports
to select major markets represents an appalling back-door attempt
to bypass the FCC's intent to limit satellite radio to a national
service only. The announcement also violates the spirit of a terrestrial
repeater agreement NAB recently negotiated with XM barring XM from
local programming delivery.
"NAB will explore
the legality of XM offering this program service. But there is no
doubt the 175 million daily listeners of local radio stations know
that the best and most reliable source for news, school closings,
and weather and traffic alerts continues to be their local broadcasters."
In their abstract,
Book and Grady point out that the academic community has not yet
turned its attention to this new medium, and as a result little
is known about satellite radio consumers. Their study will attempt
to illuminate consumer adoption of satellite radio, exploring the
characteristics of the diffusion of the service, and more specifically
how satellite radio adoption impacts the subscriber's relationship
with local radio.
The data collected
during this study is intended to offer broadcasters valuable information
as they attempt to understand how the introduction of satellite
radio will impact their respective markets.
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