| Indian section of WorldSpace radio is heading for | | | | Any other radio like FM or AM did not need a |
| a quiet demise at the end of this year. | | | | radio hanging outside your window! The antenna |
| Subscribers have been left high and dry! The good | | | | system also made it impossible to carry it |
| days of advertisement free radio are gone! So | | | | conveniently in a car. People are rarely listening to |
| what went wrong? Why has WorldSpace | | | | music except in the car. That is because they |
| generally gone from a great concept to a broke | | | | spend the better part of their days sitting in a car |
| company? | | | | waiting for the daily traffic jam to ease! No car |
| The foremost reason is the exclusive device | | | | capability made WorldSpace a difficult choice for |
| which was a necessary ingredient in their service. | | | | the average buyer. |
| This device was unusable with any other service | | | | The third reason was competition from FM |
| and rarely had any other peripheral uses other | | | | ad-supported stations. FM works from the word |
| than listening to music. Their was no bundled mp3 | | | | go in your car. It does not need special |
| capability, no FM capability and no video capability. | | | | "installations" and they keep playing the same |
| So the device was just that - a WorldSpace | | | | "hot" tunes throughout the day. Their idea is the |
| device. This made the customer wary of his | | | | catch various drivers in their cars. In fact a lot of |
| future with the service. You see the big selling | | | | programming content on FM is directed squarely |
| point of any product in India is multi-functionality. | | | | at the average driver. |
| People like their gadgets to do "everything", even | | | | Thanks to these important details, WorldSpace |
| if that means having three instances of the same | | | | has breathed its last on Indian soil. There have |
| service/function in different devices. The concept | | | | been many lovers of their service in the short |
| a "device only for WorldSpace" was a difficult idea | | | | time that they were here. But they failed to |
| to sell to the average customer. | | | | capitalize on their initial gains. Hopefully alternative |
| The second reason was the "directional antenna". | | | | services will spring up to fill the void. |