Excerpted from the Wall Street Journal “Weak Signals: Can HD Radio Find Listeners” by Sarah McBride, November 4, 2008
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The radio industry’s answer to the Internet, iPods and satellite radio has been slow to make waves with consumers.Called HD Radio, the technology allows radio stations to transmit a digital signal … extra stations … and a wider range of programming in a static-free medium. And listeners don’t have to pay subscription fees charged for satellite radio.
But four years after the first HD radios hit the marketplace, the new service hasn’t gained traction with consumers.
The signal can be heard only through special digital radio receivers, with prices that start at about $80. The digital signal typically doesn’t reach as far as the same station’s analog signal, so in many cities, the signal comes and goes as listeners drive around town…
About 600,000 HD radios are expected to sell this year. Many say that rate is too slow, considering that satellite radio now has 19 million subscribers and that Apple will sell about 33 million iPods in the U.S. this year…
Despite millions of dollars spent developing and marketing HD radio, consumers’ awareness and enthusiasm for the new technology is hard to gauge. An industry-backed survey…says three out of four radio listeners know about the technology. But an independent study…says only about one in four had heard or read “anything recently about HD Radio.”
On the retail side, some consumers report walking into big electronics stores, asking for HD radio receivers and being led instead to the section for satellite radio...For the technology to really catch on with offline listeners, radio veterans say … the HD radios must be widely available in cars…Next year, for example, HD Radio will be standard in new Volvos.
Edit by SAC
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Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122575904804195337.html
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November 10, 2008 at 10:21 am |
Clear Channel’s initial 75 Format Lab HD Internet channels/stations are down to 7 – mostly the same stuff that can be found on alalog radio:
http://tinyurl.com/5k9xuj
It is amusing that Struble compares HD Radio to the advent of FM, back in the 1960s/1970s. HD Radio is no different from FM, and is inferior in many ways (dropouts, poor coverage, and interference). Consumers have already gotten a bad taste about HD Radio, those few that tried it, and will not be going back for a second try.
No way will 600,000 HD Radio sell this year – with all of the returns of these “deaf” radios, and purchases by those in the radio industry, the number in the hands of consumers is probably 100,000 – 200,000:
“HD Radio spinners claim a breakthrough year: Pulling a fast one”
“According to a press release from the Alliance 330,000 HD receivers were sold last year. This is a 725 per cent increase from the 40,000 sets purchased a year earlier and therefore 2007 was a ‘breakthrough year’ for the technology. In 2008 they will sell a million of the things.”
http://tinyurl.com/4zgkaw