Of recent there has been a surge in internet radio stations, many Pirate stations annoyed at being targeted for controversial talk shows (in an era of apparent freedom of speech) and for supporting various community organizations have shifted their focus to an online presence rather than an analogue FM dial with its risks and expenses.

This along with the sale of analogue frequencies which are said to be replaced by digital radio by 2012 marks the death of the pirate radio DJ as the internet is, for now unmonitored and left unchecked in regards to would be controversial websites and multimedia.

Tried to break down so called, 'Dot com innovations' in a previous thread.

In my opinion there are three main uses of the Internet;

Entertainment
Education
Networking

Dot com innovations and technologies

It won't be long before Internet Radio is made portable, you will be able to receive internet radio in your car alongside various personal and home receivers that either use your existing home connection or are paid for somehow. Its here that the companies are stumped, people have to pay for a connection to the internet, so there'll either be a low cost monthly fee which most aren't likely to want to pay or they'll have to limit what stations they support which would be limited to the consumer and again, undesirable.

Anyway, fact is that portable internet radio devices are on the way, there are products inline already;


BNV, Ligali and GAP Radio should be online now, ready for gadgets like this to hit the market. Not sure how they address the problem as detailed above (subscription to the internet) but its there and will be made popular soon enough .

Not sure if they intend to censor Net radio, perhaps they're relying on the sheer number of good and no doubt bad stations out there to entangle the population into disapproval;

''oh don't listen to that, its just another net radio DJ with a grudge''

Or other such statements will echo from passing veichles, probably keep tabs on the popularity of certain stations. Still, big names will be made in the same way Goodle, Ebay, Amazon et al were not so long ago.

Anyway... its obvious that the internet will open up in general as it kind of is already with certain mobile applications, it will all become more easily accessible, not restricted to an electrical socket and modem at all.... Internet Tv station receivers and so on, will probably be able to hook one up to a standard Tv along with programs to stream Net-T.V shows from across the world.

Might be a bit of a Pandora's Box, but interesting all the same, people should be in anticipation of it, business wise that is.

Opinions?