Broadcasters Lobby For Availability Of Dab Sets

LONDON‹As digital radio is being rolled out in various stages across Europe and other parts of the globe, broadcasters‹who are investing public and private money in the technology‹are concerned that the manufacturers of digital radio receivers are dragging their feet in making the sets available to the public at the retail level.
In the World Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) Newsletter, Michael McEwen, president of the World DAB Forum, warns, "We are now at a critical point for a successful [digital radio] rollout to the market. We are beginning to look less credible the longer we wait to get affordable receivers to market and the broadcast system up and running."
The forum is an international umbrella organization of more than 80 public and private broadcasters, audiovisual hardware manufacturers, regulatory bodies, and transmission providers.
According to sources, manufacturers are hesitant about providing retailers with the digital radio receiver sets that can be produced now, because as soon as those sets would be on the shelves new sets with added features would be ready for production lines.
However, both broadcasters and manufacturers must agree on a starting point, McEwen stresses.
"It is always tempting to not bring a product to market when‹with just a few more months' work‹you can bring added value to that product and therefore added value to the consumer," he says. "[But] at this stage of receiver development, that would be a mistake. We must focus on the core business for radio‹that is, quality audio."
According to research, car digital radio sets range in price from about $2,000 to $2,700. Yet they're rarely seen on the shop floors of Europe's electronics retailers; they generally must be ordered from such manufacturers as Grundig and Bosch/Blaupunkt. For about $750, PC users can purchase a "smart card" to access digital radio via computer.
Meanwhile, some broadcasters contend that the broadcasting industry has to provide the impetus and confidence for manufacturers to mass-produce the receivers.
"The manufacturers are waiting for a lead," says Peter Leutner, managing director of European satellite audio broadcaster European Klassic Rock, which launched last October. The company will bid for a national digital multiplex license in the U.K.
"We have been talking to a few major manufacturers who are ready to push the production-line button, but they need to be convinced that they should begin volume production," he says. "The convincing [that consumers will accept digital radio] has to come from the service providers and the regulators. The regulators have actually given the lead in countries such as the U.K. and Sweden. There has been much more development on the manufacturers' side than you can possibly imagine."
But at the U.K.'s BBC, some are convinced that the manufacturers are capable of mass-producing affordable receivers right now.
According to Glyn Jones, BBC Digital Radio's managing editor, manufacturers can produce a receiver that would be compatible as a component of many consumers' in-home music systems. In a similar manner, the earliest CD players were also available as separate components.
"Our estimate is that you could manufacture it and get it to the factory gate for about $160," Jones says. "It would then probably sell for about $320 at the retail level. We have passed along this information, and nobody has challenged us and told us this was not possible. So we are pursuing this with the manufacturers."
Meanwhile, Jones was a member of a BBC team that represented some of the interests of members of the World DAB Forum, which held a series of meetings with several manufacturers earlier this year in Tokyo.
The trip's purpose was to underline broadcasters' commitment to the technology and to encourage manufacturers to continue to develop sets while discussing how the currently available sets could be rolled out to the marketplace.