CEA and CTIA are wrong to say there’s little consumer demand for...
CEA and CTIA are wrong to say there’s little consumer demand for putting chips that cost about 30 cents each in cellphones so the devices can get FM broadcasts, said CEO Jeff Smulyan of Emmis, which owns 25 radio stations.…
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He responded to remarks from CEA President Gary Shapiro that a potential performance royalty deal between music labels and radio broadcasters is backward-looking and to opposition by CEA and CTIA to any congressional mandate for FM chips in cellphones as part of any agreement between members of NAB and RIAA (CD Aug 16 p5). “If you look at the studies around the world, there is great consumer demand,” with about 1 billion FM chips in cellphones worldwide, Smulyan said in an interview Tuesday. “CTIA knows that as well as I do.” He would be “delighted to debate Mr. Shapiro any day on this issue, and I am hopeful that he will understand” that radio isn’t a horse-and-buggy industry, as the CEA head implied, Smulyan said. “I think he must know that more than 5 million [additional] people listen to radio today” than two years ago, he said. “If he thinks that’s horse-and-buggy, then so be it."