How Ultravox could save internet radio

No, nothing to do with playing "Vienna" lots and lots of times - no amount of Midge Ure is going to help internet radio get over its biggest problem: the more listeners a station has, the higher its costs. Unlike conventional radio, where costs are fixed whether one person or a thousand listens within a given radius, internet radio stations need extra server and bandwidth power for every set of ears. All of which makes this story from CNET News.com interesting. It seems AOL Time Warner - a company with something of an interest in making its audio and video available over the net cheaply - is looking at ways to make streaming cheaper, faster and better, by putting streaming software on to the internet's routers. It's a pretty radical move, and it is bad news for RealNetworks, which has provided AOL's streaming technology for some time.