Reuters announces ClearChannel's new Net strategy. In short: catch up. Let's parse what they're doing:

-Simulcast stations...this was announced a little while back I think, and was to be expected

-Create concert programming (a la Sessions@AOL) & monetize via sponsorships & video ads....what's nice here is that they don't pay for the talent save for production costs. I think they can have more success given the number of artists going through their radio stations and their concert/promotion business.

-"It may begin offering subscription online radio services, the ability to buy songs digitally or in CD format, or even ringtones directly from their Web sites."...Note that CC already has a very nice subscription online radio business via their Premier Radio property that sells subs to their top talk radio personalities' shows/sites.

In terms of the latter two, they're kind of a yawner as others have been doing this for a while. I wonder who they'll use to provide the back-end. A key question is the branding. Is CC simply going to be a conduit to existing retail stores like iTunes or MSN, or are they going to try to private label their own digital music/ringtone store?

The latter could imply vertical integration that may make some label folks nervous (i.e. if ClearChannel is getting into the business of selling/distributing recorded music, what's to stop them from moving upstream to take a piece of the action by signing artists?).

-"Perhaps most surprising of all, Clear Channel also plans to make some of its live morning shows available for downloading, commonly known as "Podcasting."...This makes sense as it will appeal to the types of folks that have been tuning radio out, but I wonder if they'll include copyright music as part of the Podcasts (since this is currently not licensed under the DMCA, or license the music from the labels), or if they'll stick to talk only.

There is a good deal of distance between ClearChannel and the two front-runner digital music properties, Yahoo & AOL. But ClearChannel can take long strides by virtue of the tens of millions of consumers they reach every week, and they have a very capable leader in Evan Harrison. Game on.

[cross-posted from www.ragsgupta.com]