Satellite Radio – on your cellphone

Inside Radio today reports on MSpot, a new service which brings several channels of streaming audio to your cellphone (if you’re a Sprint PCS Vision customer) for $5.95 per month.

Here’s their pitch:

MSpot Radio is the first live and on-demand, satellite-quality streaming radio service delivered directly to mobile phones. Available now on the Sprint Nationwide PCS Network, MSpot Radio features 13 premium audio channels that Sprint PCS Vision (sm) customers can subscribe to directly from their Sanyo MM-7400 and Sanyo MM-5600 mobile phones. MSpot Radio delivers live and on-demand audio content in real-time over existing wireless networks. For $5.95 a month, subscribers have access to a wide variety of music, news, sports, finance, weather and talk from some of the most popular national radio channels, including The Associated Press, MarketWatch, AccuWeather, NPR® and the Sporting News.

Now I’m guessing the audio quality is marginal – at least for now. But it will only get better as there’s a REASON for better-than-phone-audio quality from a mobile phone.

It’s also interesting that this is being pitched as a form of “satellite radio.” These guys are trying to piggyback on a category that is well-established and will certainly succeed in diluting what it means to be “satellite radio.” This will not be helpful for Sirius and XM.

Meanwhile, it provides all the stuff many cell phone users currently use their phones to browse the web for (however sluggishly).

More than anything, a quick glance at the audio services provided prove the value of branded content. Each non-music channel is meant to represent its category. It’s more proof of the importance of content in the audio entertainment and information business – and THAT is the business your radio station is in, friends.