Clear Channel Radio and mobile entertainment provider mSpot have entered in a content agreement, allowing for music programming from ten Clear Channel stations to be heard on mSpot's radio services.

Clear Channel Radio is providing mSpot with Contemporary Hits Radio (CHR) and Urban programming from five of its most popular terrestrial stations: WHTZ (New York), WWPR (New York), KHHT (Los Angeles), WGCI (Chicago) and WMIB (Miami).

Spanish-language content from four Latin channels and a playlist of Hip-Hop hits (from Clear Channel Radio's Format Lab) also are now all available to mSpot subscribers commercial free.

If that's not bad enough, next month mSpot expects to distribute live broadcasts from almost 100 Clear Channel Radio stations.

"Wireless carriers, entertainment and media companies are working hard to make new and compelling content available to a variety of mobile phones," said mSpot CEO and co-founder Daren Tsui. "Radio programming is among the most requested mobile content, so we're thrilled to be able to offer Clear Channel Radio's top-rated and original music channels to mSpot users."

mSpot announced yesterday that they've reached 1 million subscribers since going live with their first service in 2005.

[via FMQB] 

At the recent House and Senate hearings on the XM-Sirius merger, it's amazing to see how little is understood about the next generation of multimedia delivery options. A lot of the focus seems to be on WiMAX - maybe because it's a fun buzzword - but the reality is that WiMAX is still a ways off in the distance... and yet mobile phone services (particularly 3G) are here already.

In the first House hearing, the NAB constantly noted that satellite radio is the only "nationwide, multichannel mobile audio programming service" available on the market. My instant thought was that mobile phone services were (intentionally) completely ignored, and I felt Mel Karmazin didn't seem to push that opposing view hard enough.

In the second and third hearings, Karmazin did a better job of highlighting the multimedia abilities of mobile phone networks, but he also lumped in WiMAX into the picture. But WiMAX is completely nascent, and (funny enough) the Congressmen seemed to confuse it with Wi-Fi.

The real threat comes from mobile phone services, and specifically on 3G where the speeds really begin to make a difference. The importance here is that the technology currently exists, and is a high priority by wireless carriers. There's also a massive existing subscriber base (I believe in the realm of 75% of the U.S. population) and so they have an incredible platform to build upon.

Then there's those content agreements. Sprint has a deal with the NFL and the MLB, not to mention other services like MobiRadio which offer ESPN Radio and Radio Disney through several wireless carriers. And that doesn't even include various over-the-air music offerings.

Regardless of all these offerings, the general public (and likely government officials listening to these arguments) don't think of their cellphone as a music device. A cellphone's primary function is to make phone calls. But once a company is actually able to figure out how to meld the function of making phone calls, with that of a quality listening experience, then the general public's opinion will evolve.

...did I forget to mention the iPhone?

No, a $600 touch-screen phone isn't going to instantly change the world overnight. But it's a stepping stone, and one that Apple no-doubt understands. Just like the iPod, they're not the first to come to market with this concept (music + phone), but they'll be the one to properly execute on it. And as the critical mass evolves to accept the iPhone, Apple will evolve along with it - bring wireless over-the-air services to the iPhone - at breakneck 3G speeds.

And Apple will use it's already established relationships with auto manufacturers as a stepping stone as well. Before long, there will be a cradle that you can snap your iPhone into, and have your own person tunes mixed with over-the-air wireless music and live events. The ubiquitous cellphone, and the ubiquitous iPod, will combine to become the next generation of ubiquitous radio. A nationwide multichannel audio service on a device that is globally accepted.

It's not the immediate future. But it's also not the too-distance future either.

So the next time the NAB points the finger at Satellite Radio as being a unique service - ignore the fact that they syndicate programming across hundreds of stations nationwide (and really, is that any different than using repeater towers?) - but just hand them a list of the wireless carriers and give 'em a big smile.

Yesterday it was reported that Sprint Nextel was dropping Sirius from the Vision and Power Vision plans. This is incorrect.

Sprint Nextel is simply dropping a single channel, but is retaining the full $6.95/month service. The relationship between the two services is fine and healthy.

The original RCRWireless News article indicated the "Sirius Hits streaming music service" was being dropped - which was the source of the confusion (who the hell calls a channel a "service"? oh well, no excuses). After further inquiry with Sirius I learned that it was indeed just one channel and not the entire service that was being affected, so I want to ensure that this is cleared up for everyone.

You may commence critiquing... now. 

Sirius Nextel told its customers in a billing insert that they're dropping the Sirius streaming music service for Vision and Power Vision data subscribers.

Sirius Music is apparently getting the boot in favor of 10 "genre-based channels" of mobile music.

UPDATE: More has been learned about this, read about it here.

Sprint Nextel will also be expanding their basic Sprint TV service with additional content from CNN, The Weather Channel, E!, NFL Network and Fox Sports.

A Sprint Nextel spokesman had nothing further to say other than what was already revealed in the billing insert.

If this is the case, it obviously won't have a major impact on subscribers (the act of Sprint dropping Sirius indicates that it was a less-than-stellar success... surprised?). But it was an important foothold for the future when mobile music gains acceptance by the masses.

[RCRWireless News via Sirius Uplink]