17 Mar 2010

FRANCE: Digital radio “is not progressing one inch”

A meeting of radio sector stakeholders on Monday 15 March 2010 at France’s media regulator, the CSA, failed to progress the plan to launch digital terrestrial radio this year. According to Le Point, the commercial broadcasters – RTL, Europe 1, NRJ and RMC – demanded a moratorium. State broadcaster Radio France is one of the few continuing to support the CSA’s plan to launch digital radio, delayed from 2009 to mid-2010, using the T-DMB transmission standard.

A member of the Bureau de la Radio trade organisation commented: “There is no economic model [for digital radio]. The choice of the [T-DMB] broadcast standard adopted in Bercy is very expensive. The upside for listeners is not sufficient for us to fund a third broadcast platform to add to the existing Long Wave and FM [platforms]. … We are disappointed because this meeting has not enabled anything to progress. What happens next?”

According to Le Point, the regulator has responded only with “radio silence”. Its headline read: "Digital terrestrial radio is not progressing one inch."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Consumers like me and the countless others, like me, don't want it and don't see the need for it. It's unfortunate that this nonsense continues to be forced by a few radio people that have a financial interest in it. It's failed everywhere it's been tried. A normal industry would have abandoned it years ago but not the radio industry. They like to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anonymous. Also, Brazil is now thinking about IBOC or DRM - DRM seems to be the favorite, now. Good-luck with either of these - there are virtually no DRM receivers, and HD radios are not selling. However, be grateful that you do not live in the US, as IBOC is trashing our airwaves. I have never seen a company as iBiquity, trying to force-feed their junk-engineering on a totally apathetic public. This is nuts.

bobyoung said...

I also agree with both and do live in the USA, IBOC has been making a mess of AM radio here for several years and FM IBOC is also a joke.