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Worldspace rebrands itself |
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| Chris Forrester, on 16-07-2008 |
 Worldspace, after 10 years of investment in its brand, is modifying itself to be known as “1Worldspace”. Its new web-site (at www.1worldspace.com) is partly live. Worldspace has also responded to our recent pieces about the broadcaster.
Judith Prior, Worldspace’s SVP/corporate communications, has helpfully
compiled a full dossier on Rapid TV News’ writings on her employers,
and we are happy to give readers her responses. One element she has not
denied or indeed commented on was the major thrust of our recent story
which was that Worldspace’s cash resources are so modest that they are
not paying senior staff.
However, Ms Prior is right to remind us of the latest position
regarding their India activity. “We continue to strongly believe in the
India market for satellite radio,” said her statement. “We have opted
to pull back marketing spend in the region until the necessary
terrestrial repeater licensing has been granted/issued. This has been
stated and cited publicly in our quarterly results calls by Noah
Samara, and therefore available in the transcripts that result from
those calls.” Ms Prior is correct, and Worldspace needs to find a local
partner to take 26% of a local Worldspace company in order to pursue
those India licenses.
Worldspace also argues with a statement we made regarding the costs of
developing their European plan. We used comments from a highly-placed
independent source within the European satellite radio industry, who
quoted US cellular expert Craig McCaw who has stated that it might cost
$800m to roll out a satellite-based network in the USA transmitting
data, telematics and similar services. Ms Prior says Worldspace’s costs
in regard to terrestrial audio repeaters alone for Italy will be $20
million, and commensurate for each other European country.
As regards the numerous Class Action lawsuits pending against
Worldspace, Ms Prior states the allegations “question the accuracy of
our India subscriber count. We have said repeatedly that the company
stands by the counts and will defend the lawsuit vigorously.”
Rapid TV News, again quoting an industry insider, pointed out that
Worldspace’s satellites were hardly now state-of-the art in regards to
design or functionality. Worldspace’s comments are: “The two innovative
WorldSpace satellites that are in orbit today, provide excellent
coverage, crystal clear programming and the AfriStar satellite is
performing magnificently in tests using the new ETSI standard in
conjunction with our newly-built terrestrial network in Milan, as we
continue activity surrounding the introduction of services in Italy.
Indeed, engineers representing certain potential customers who have had
US satellite radio experience have reported to us following drive tests
of our system in Milan that our performance exceeds the US
performance.”
This is good news for Worldspace, and their Italian partners. We at
Rapid TV News look forward to hearing more of the promised 2009 launch
of a Worldspace – or 1Worldspace – service in Italy. We also await more
news on Worldspace’s refinancing, cash injection, fresh partnerships
and progress generally. As we have stated many times, we want satellite
radio to be a success over Europe. But there are plenty of acknowledged
satellite experts who are extremely negative on the prospects of
European sat-radio and we could easily cite them. As founder Noah
Samara told his staff last week, Worldspace needs fresh cash and
execution. We agree.
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