In-car competitors in flux.

AT&T CruiseCast offered subscribers 20 satellite radio channels and 22 television channels in a rear-seat entertainment system.  But the $1,299 hardware price tag and $28 a month subscription fee was a turnoff for all but a handful of customers, especially during a recession.  But other competitors are on the horizon.

CruiseCast stopped taking new orders and begun offering refunds to those who did buy the service.  Dallas-based RaySat Broadcasting had been developing the system with AT&T for more than a year and CEO Winston Guillory told Inside Radio earlier this year they didn’t view CruiseCast as a direct competitor to Sirius XM or free radio.  Under an agreement with the FCC, they were prohibited from including an over-the-air tuner for either radio or TV, instead relying on Music Choice audio.

While CruiseCast may be history, the car video segment is still growing.  Qualcomm and Audiovox are launching “Flo TV” at a much-lower $699 price-point with monthly fees starting at $9.  It will offer in-car live TV application using an antenna the size of a computer mouse.  The service goes live over the next few weeks and will be sold at 12,000 new car dealers in 85 markets.  AudioVox CEO Pat Lavelle says, “We’ll be launching at car dealers first and will follow shortly thereafter at retail.”

While “Flo TV” does not include the audio service that CruiseCast did, under its deal with ESPN there will be a dedicated stream of ESPN Radio.