Dear Log,
"Few people listen to digital radio, but with ã99 sets going on sale this year, and the gradual introduction of digital radios as standard in cars and hi-fis, signs are good. After years of false dawns this new medium is finally expected to take off, taking radio into a new age."Digital... radio? What?
The main point of digital radio seems to be that you can get more channels in the same amount of bandwidth. This means that you'll get things like displays that tell you what program you're listening to and what piece of music is playing. There will also probably be some kind of two-way communication so you can give instant feedback on polls and that kind of thing.
Digital radio is really the poor relation of digital TV. And that industry is growing fast. I know very few people who don't have access to digital TV (but that's probably more indicative of the people I know than of the national usage stats). I now have anout a hundred channels to choose from rather than the five offered by terrestrial analogue broadcasting.
One of the hottest political potatoes over here is when to turn off the analogue signal without annoying too many voters who can't afford to upgrade.
What's the situation on digital broadcasting elsewhere in the world?
Re:Digital Broadcasting
pudge on 2002-02-01T16:35:11
Well, out where I live ("Middle of Nowhere, MA") I would hope that digital radio would also mean better reception. Might this be the case?Re:Digital Broadcasting
davorg on 2002-02-01T17:54:18
Yeah, that could well be the case. I forgot to mention that - but then I never have a problem with FM reception so it slipped my mind
:) Re:Digital Broadcasting
ziggy on 2002-02-04T18:27:11
In the states, there are two competing firms for digital (satellite) radio: XM and Sirius Radio. (XM had an ad in the America's Bowl last night).Both are pretty comparable: $10-$15/month for access, and something along the lines of 100-200 channels with better reception and no dropped signals. The only hiccup at the moment is that the two "stations" need dedicated hardware -- you can't subscribe to Sirius if you have a tuner that only picks up XM. (This should be solved in a few years' time when you can listen to *both* transmissions). Oh, and one will have commercials, and the other will be commercial free I think.
The target audience here is primarily drivers who are tired with the commercialized formats being foisted upon the populace today. That means that for $10/month, you can listen to the all-hip-hop, the all-jazz, or the all-talk-radio stations you enjoy and ignore the rest -- and never drop the signal as you drive from middle-of-nowhere-ME to middle-of-nowhere-WA.
Oh, and add some buzzwords about targeted marketing and you've got the picture in a nutshell.
