CHUM officials mum on role for 500-channel-plus music streaming site

CHUM Radio Group Ltd has quietly launched a major new online initiative featuring over 500 channels of streaming, Windows Media format music. The company has registered a site, www.bonzaroo.com, through its Ottawa office, and has the site up and running, though it’s unknown when the project will be publicly launched other than through a low-key banner campaign on CHUM group radio stations. It has been operating apparently since April 1 under the radar, but executives aren’t discussing Bonzaroo, and numerous requests for information by Canadian NEW MEDIA went unanswered. The site was registered this winter and the home page already carries advertising, in the form of a single banner ad by Maritime food giant McCain Foods Ltd. Subscribers can register for free, and privacy terms on the site indicate that chat groups and bulletin boards may be introduced at some point in the future. In the meantime, Bonzaroo has reserved the right to collect demographic information related to listening habits for later sale to third parties. The music, professionally programmed, ranges from bubble gum bands to harder-edged alternative music and 80s hits, indicating a likely target group between 14-35 years old. There is currently little advertising during the programming, other than infrequent branding ads and once-an-hour spots for sponsor McCain. There is no confirmation yet of how the company intends to handle the thorny and potentially expensive rights issue, though a page on the site says royalties will be paid on the traditional basis of station revenue. Unlike its licensed radio stations, however, executives state on the site that it won’t be bound by content regulation. "Unlike traditional radio services, which are tightly regulated and subject to restrictive control over content we deliver our programming over Internet and wireless devices using standard streaming media protocols garnering us a tremendous advantage over the traditional broadcaster," its web site states. It’s also up in the air how the site will support itself, and company executives are likely looking for a greater number of advertisers before announcing the site to the broader public. Other sites which have relied on advertising revenue to support themselves, such as FMCanada.com, have failed amidst a glut of similar sites on the web. Last August, Martz Communications Group Inc launched FMCanada.com (CNM, Aug. 23/00) with high hopes of attracting advertisers with more targeted options than traditional broadcast. The initiative was grounded in February, however, a victim of a harsh environment for advertiser-supported web properties. In the U.S., over a thousand online stations recently stopped their webcasts as national broadcast groups there come to grips with online rights issues, as reported recently in the Globe and Mail. In late March and early April, major broadcasters closed their online operations in response to a notice by U.S. advertising agencies that any advertisement re-broadcast on the Internet would be subject to a US$660 royalty payment to voice-over artists. Executives there expressed doubt last month that many stations would re-start their web programming until a workable business plan and technology could be worked out for Internet-only advertising. The Globe reported that web broadcasting fell by more than 13 per cent as a result. As an Internet play, Bonzaroo is the first major online initiative from CHUM since creating its interactive division, ChumCity Interactive in 1995. To date, its major project has been to create three new sites, www.1050chum.com, www.theteamradio.com, and www.chumfm.com, each dwarfed by the scope of the Bonzaroo project. Its introduction could be an indication that the broadcaster and station owner is beginning to view the Internet as a legitimate distribution medium, and not just as a corollary to over-the-air operations. Bonzaroo banners have been popping up on the CHUM group stations’ web sites in the past week, but a more concerted public relations push seems likely in the coming weeks. If the project succeeds, it may be because of a unique offering to bring the broadcasts not just to the desktop, but to wireless devices as well. A site page indicates Bonzaroo should be available to cars, phones, PDAs, and portable streaming media players, all via satellite, landline, cable and DTV transmission. Those technologies exist in limited form today, but are in a nascent phase, and it’s uncertain whether Bonzaroo could follow through on those promises inside of three or four years. Officials are mum on the technology, however. The only public word on how the site is being put together is a brief reference of Bonzaroo as a customer of WA-based Xcache Technologies’ web caching products.

CHUM officials mum on role for 500-channel-plus music streaming site

Broadcast | May 17, 2001

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CHUM officials mum on role for 500-channel-plus music streaming site

Broadcast | May 17, 2001

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