Look who is giving up on Real Audio format? Will others look at competing technologies more seriously?
Yahoo! to Shut Down RealAudio Radio Feeds December 22, 1999
By Brian McWilliams
InternetNews.com Correspondent Streaming Media News Archives
Yahoo! Broadcast, the portal's streaming media unit, is moving to drop support for RealNetworks' RealAudio and move exclusively to Microsoft's Windows Media format, perhaps as soon as the end of the year.
According to officials at several radio stations, Yahoo! Broadcast, formerly known as Broadcast.com, is warning them to be ready for a period of potential confusion as listeners encounter broken hyperlinks and missing bookmarks pegged to their RealAudio stream.
Yahoo! (YHOO) currently carries streaming media feeds for more than 400 radio stations from the Radio section of its site. Most enable listeners to tune in using either the RealPlayer or the Windows Media player. But station managers and program directors say Yahoo! has begun notifying stations that it will soon stop encoding their live satellite feeds in RealAudio format.
David Freedman, station manager at WWOZ of New Orleans, said his station has been a Broadcast.com affiliate since 1995, when it broadcast over the Internet using RealAudio version 1.0. Freedman said Yahoo's discontinuation of support for RealAudio is likely to upset some listeners, but he expects most will roll with the punches.
"There will be a lot of discomfort and confusion for a period of time. Clearly, a certain percentage of people won't upgrade, but my guess is that most people will go through the process, and then it will normalize again," said Freedman.
Officials from radio stations in New Jersey and North Carolina offered similar accounts of the situation today, but declined to speak on the record out of concern for their relationship with Yahoo.
Yahoo representatives did not return requests for comment. Nor did officials from Real Networks Inc. (RNWK).
Robert Fagin, an analyst with Bear Stearns, said any change in Yahoo's policy would be governed by its contract with Real. The expiration date and other details of that agreement were not available.
Should Yahoo move away from support for RealMedia, Fagin said it might be for financial reasons, since Microsoft offers its server software for free to broadcasters. But such an exclusive arrangement would be contrary to the agnostic position taken by most big Internet streaming media providers.
"Microsoft is certainly gaining momentum, but it still has a relatively tiny market share, and most large broadcasters are opting to use both Real and Microsoft," said Fagin, whose firm has an "attractive" rating on Real Networks shares.
Station managers said Yahoo representatives didn't explain why they were dropping support for Real. But they touted an upcoming enhancement to the Windows Media player which will enable users to add a Yahoo! Broadcast "skin" to the player and configure presets for their favorite stations -- a feature that's already in the latest version of the RealPlayer.
Real's relationship with Broadcast.com has become strained in recent years, as Real has moved beyond being a streaming media tools provider to becoming a content aggregator through properties such as its Real Guide. At one time, Real also had a much more cozy relationship with Microsoft which was once a major shareholder in the company.
In a recent filing with SEC for a follow-on offering of shares, Real cites Yahoo's acquisition of Broadcast.com as a potential risk factor, and notes that Microsoft competes with Real "to attract broadcasters .. to promote and deliver such content in Microsoft's formats, in some cases on an exclusive or preferential basis."
News of Yahoo's move to Windows Media follows the recent demise of a streaming media partnership with Real under which users of the My Yahoo start-page service could configure a Daily Briefing playlist of RealAudio newscasts from partners in Real's Real Channel program. That service was recently replaced by an offering of Broadcast.com content. |
