|
New Delhi:: It’s hardly a secret that radio is back in fashion. In line with the trend, even the government is talking of bringing a radio revolution in India soon. Industry is already there, with the privatisation of FM radio, and is now set for growth in a more liberalised regime. But, FM is just a part of the big radio story. Digital technology, some say, is the key to completing this story board. This is despite digital terrestrial radio not taking off in a big way anywhere yet. BBC, for instance, introduced digital radio in the UK several years ago, but the listener response is still quite mixed to the offering.
However, a three-day seminar on digital radio, which was organised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) in New Delhi recently, focused on how digital was the way forward. Whether its Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) or In-Band-On-Channel (IBOC), there’s no way that one can escape the digital wave, participants at the ABU meet opined.
From Malaysia to Iran to Australia to New Zealand, speakers from each country shared their varied country experiences on digital radio. India is also in the process of introducing digital radio in terrestrial format. Digital satellite radio is already there, with WorldSpace offering the service in India. According to officials in the information and broadcasting ministry, once medium wave goes on to the DAB platform, clarity of reception will be many times more. The only hurdle would be the receiver cost, which is expected to be much higher than that of traditional radio sets. All India Radio (AIR) is in talks with four receiver manufacturers from abroad before finalising the deal for digital radio.
UK-based BBC is among the first to have introduced digital terrestrial radio. Others, including the public broadcaster of India, are using the BBC case as a lesson to fall back on for their respective experiments. According to a report in The Guardian recently, BBC spent 15 million pounds last year alone developing and marketing a range of digital channels broadcast on digital radio, satellite, and cable. “BBC argues that the new stations are aimed at communities traditionally under-served by the BBC and that listening figures are less important than reaching new audiences,” says the report. “But despite the huge outlay and copious amounts of radio and television promotion, none of the new stations managed to attract average weekly audiences of more than...
| Single Page Format | 1 - 2 - 3 - Next |
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
 |
 |
 |
About Us | Contact Us | Advertisers | Site Map | Make us your homepage | Work for Us | RSS | Subscribe | Electronic Edition | Privacy Policy© 2010: The Indian Express Limited. All rights reserved throughout the world
