AOL to ditch Real Networks in Netscape Radio?

26 Apr 2004 | 12:03 BST

By Fernando Cassia

All aboard the Ultravox express!

"AOL has no idea what their strategy should be
regarding streaming media. So rather than trying to refine
it to a sensible position, they are instead going to try to
keep juggling as many balls as possible, and will keep on
hoping for a divine flash of revelation."
- Mark Nelson, datacompression.info (2003)

A FEW DAYS after a Paul Palumbo from AccuStream iMedia Research, was quoted everywhere saying that audio and video streaming is finally "mainstream", one reader contacted me asking why an update of the Netscape Radio application suddenly prompted Internet Explorer message boxes asking for permission to allow "scripting and Active-X".

The Netscape Radio application is bundled with the Mozilla-based Netscape v7.1 browser, and also distributed in stand-alone form at http://radio.netscape.com. When these days you run the original bundled version of Netscape Radio, you get a friendly dialog saying the current version will "expire soon", and that you should upgrade to the newest version to continue using the service. Once you approve the installation of the update, there is something interesting... the "Real Audio" plug-in doesn't seem to be used, and instead an Active-X component is launched by the radio software.

This change leads me to believe this is more than a simple software upgrade: AOL seems to be planning to ditch Real Networks' servers from their free "Netscape Radio" service. AOL first introduced an Active-X based version of their subscribers-only streaming radio service (what AOLers see by entering the keyword "radio") with the "AOL 8.0" software incarnation. The "Radio@AOL" service, now available to all AOL users with v8.0 and v9 clients uses "Ultravox", a sound streaming technology developed by AOL's Nullsoft subsidiary of Winamp fame, and delivered as an Active-X component for Internet Explorer.

One can only conclude that this otherwise little change in the Netscape Radio software actually signals the troubled Online Giant's decision to dump Real Networks for good, extending Ultravox from Radio@AOL also to their free-for-all Netscape Radio service as well.

The "Real" cost?
Leaving aside all predictions about Real Networks' future, their attempted marriage with Apple, or the Vole, or their upcoming demise, I speculate that cost-cutting may have played a role in this latest move from the Dulles, VA company. Or there was a sudden influx of "strategy" from the heavens into the company's management.

It's simple: when AOL streams audio using "ultravox" (like they currently do with "Radio@AOL"), they have to pay no server licence to anybody ("ultravox" was developed in-house). But if they keep running Netscape Radio with their existing "Real Servers" -what originally used to be called Spinner.com- they probably have to pay the usual licence dues to Real Networks, often billed by the number of simultaneous streams -listeners connected- that each server can handle.

Active-X hole meets Linux and MacOS-X?
When (and if) the "old" Real-based service is turned off in favor of the new Nullsoft-flavoured radio service, it is going to annoy a lot of Linux and MacOS-X users, I'm sure. Until now, the use of Real streams by "Netscape Radio" gave the service a more "cross-platform" flavor. Mac OS-X and Linux Netscape users were redirected to a less fancy html interface that used the browser's Real plug-in instead of a custom stand-alone player like in Windows.

No matter how good "Nullsoft Audio" (NSA) files sound when streamed from AOL's "Ultravox" servers, the technology seems to be Active-X based and hence Windows-only. On the other hand there are native linux versions and browser plug-ins of Real Player, even in open source form.

As a techie, I hope the folks at Nullsoft to do things in the right way, specially if AOL is serious about releasing a Netscape update based on Mozilla 1.7, and compile a Netscape/Mozilla style "plug-in" version of their current ultravox Active-X component, and bundle it with the browser. As some of you might know, Active-X in not only widely known as a big security menace, but also doesn't get along well with non-Windows OSs.

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