Steady HD Radio Growth Predicted by iBiquity CEO
More consumers will buy in-car radios and mobile devices that can get HD Radio in the coming years, iBiquity Digital CEO Bob Struble said. Unit sales doubled in fiscal 2009, and 1.5 million in total have been shipped, he said Monday in an interview. Struble didn’t provide dollar figures about the privately held licensor of digital radio technology to broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers.
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“We recognize that’s on a small base, but we foresee that type of growth in the foreseeable future,” Struble said. The initial “rush” for FM stations to install HD Radio gear to transmit multiple programming streams in digital has slowed, but broadcasters continue to add the service, he said. “Our predominant focus has really been on the consumer side, because that’s really the key step to get to that mass adoption and that ubiquitous nature,” Struble said. “We've seen a slow and steady increase in the number of stations going on the air, and we think that’s quite exciting given the general economy and just the direct hit that broadcasters have taken” with the advertising downturn.
A compromise, across-the-board 300 percent digital FM power increase of 6 dB to -14 dBc presented by the company and National Public Radio to the FCC Media Bureau last week (CED Nov 6 p3) could lead to further requests for increases, Struble said. “There is room and sort of the structure of the compromise indicates that. I think of it as 6 decibels for everybody and certainly [that] stations can go above 6 decibels certainly implies we'd like to get more than that if we can.” NPR may run additional interference tests as broadcasters gain experience with higher power levels, he added: “We're not done here,” though further increases must be balanced against the possibility of interference.
The bureau is working on an item responsive to the iBiquity-NPR plan and other requests, a commission official said. The FCC wants to ensure that more consumers can receive HD Radio, the official said. The FCC granted 14 waivers in recent years for radio stations to boost digital signals 10 dB, to -10 dBc. A group of 16 radio broadcasters had sought blanket approval for power increases of the same 900 percent.
The NAB wrote the commission Thursday to support the 300 percent blanket increase, which is backed by many broadcasters (CED Nov 9 p2). The FCC should “act quickly to adopt” the plan, the association said. “Consumers who have purchased or may purchase portable HD Radio devices that have become available recently will benefit from quick FCC action. The record in this proceeding is now complete.”
But groups representing low-power FM stations said NPR’s testing of higher power levels hadn’t taken into account effects on LPFM broadcasters. “The adoption of digital radio is minimal and a power increase could negatively impact the large number of radio listeners that still rely on the analog signal,” Media Access Project and Prometheus Radio Project representatives told an aide to Commissioner Michael Copps last week, an ex parte filing said. “The parties also noted the impact of self-interference to the analog signals.”