[HCDX] Why digital radio is doomed

["Zacharias Liangas " <greekdx@xxxxxxxxx>]

Why digital radio is doomed
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?bl&ex=12
04261200&en=0667d0ff53b714a8&ei=5087%0A
Asher Moses
February 27, 2008 - 1:43PM
Advertisement

Podcasting and the ubiquity of MP3 players have doomed digital radio 
before it even launches in Australia, one of the country's leading 
broadcasting academics says.

Existing radio broadcasters are relying on the upcoming digital services - set 
to launch on January 1 next year - to help them stay modern and continue 
attracting younger audiences.

Digital radio will initially launch only in the capital cities and requires listeners 
to buy new digital radio receivers. Radios already installed in devices such 
as cars and mobile phones will need to be upgraded as they are now 
analogue only.

But Jock Given, a professor of media and communications at Swinburne 
University, who specialises in digital broadcasting, predicts the industry will 
have difficulty convincing people to upgrade.

He said that, unlike upgrading from analogue to digital television, where 
there were clear image quality benefits, digital radio didn't add much to the 
digital audio offerings already freely available on the internet and painlessly 
portable via MP3 players.

Given's comments were sparked by GCap, one of Britain's largest 
commercial radio operators, announcing it would quit digital radio to focus 
on analogue and online services. GCap's reasoning was that digital radio 
was not an "economically viable platform".

GCap's move is a stinging indictment of the prospects of digital radio in 
Australia because Britain was seen as one of the markets in which the 
platform had been relatively successful.

"The idea that everyone is going to do it [upgrade] just because it's digital, I 
think that's naive, because the present is digital," said Given, who recently 
wrote the book Turning Off The Television: Broadcasting's Uncertain Future.

"The sorts of people who are most likely to be interested in new kinds of 
[digital radio] products seem to me to be quite likely the people who have 
already taken up new kinds of [online] digital audio products and may find 
what digital radio is able to offer them a bit underwhelming by comparison 
with what they've already got."

Digital radio will be accessed in a similar way to today's radio but can offer 
listeners additional features such as potentially better sound quality, access 
to images and text information such as track listings, news headlines and 
weather reports and, potentially, more shows.

Broadcasters have already committed to investing tens of millions of dollars 
in the initial roll out of digital radio and hundreds of millions more will be 
needed for a complete national roll out over the next few years.

Given, a former member of the Digital Radio Advisory Committee, said the 
launch of digital radio had already been delayed significantly - the Federal 
Government first announced plans a decade ago - because local radio 
broadcasters questioned the commercial benefits of investing so much in 
digital infrastructure.

He said the issue would continue to plague digital radio as the distribution of 
digital audio via the internet was far cheaper. As well, while digital radio 
requires new receivers, consumers with a computer and the internet already 
had all that was required to tune into radio online.

"Here is this well-placed commercial radio operator in Britain [GCap] saying 
we're getting out of this game having stuck with it for 13 years, meanwhile 
here in Australia we're just getting started with it," Given said.

"We're a market that's a third of the size of Britain spread across a much 
larger land mass and so the job of financing interesting new services with 
this technology is tougher."

Digital radio has also struggled in Canada, with the communications 
regulator concluding a year ago that adoption by consumers had stalled and 
there were "only token efforts under way to promote the digital radio services 
that have been launched".

Given acknowledged that digital radio had the potential to offer higher quality 
broadcasts but said this depended on a range of variables, such as the data 
rates chosen by the individual radio stations.

"There's a trade-off between the number of stations and the quality of any 
individual station," he said.

Joan Warner, chief executive of the national industry body, Commercial 
Radio Australia, said like any new medium, digital radio would inevitably 
have detractors.

She did not respond to Given's claims any further other than to say digital 
radio would "be the most exciting innovation for the industry in many years 
and will provide listeners with clearer sound and a myriad of other great 
features".

Please read my aricle on SINPO at (one line!)
http://zliangas.blogspot.com/2008/02/sinpfemo-better-signal-tech-analysis-
by.html
________________________
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........
Zacharias Liangas , Thessaloniki Greece 
greekdx @ otenet dot gr  ---  
Pesawat penerima: ICOM R75 , Lowe HF150 , Degen 1102,1103,108,
Tecsun PL200/550, Chibo c300/c979, Yupi 7000 
Antenna: 16m hor, 2x16 m V invert, 1m australian loop 

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