"Australia got a policy...". "Doing without digital radio didn't mean Australian audiences had to do without listening choices." "Australia has gone to school on these overseas experiences..."." The delays about digital radio...".

The writing as exemplified I consider to be lamentable. Really!The author may well have spent too much time listening to the wireless.His last paragraph, in my view, fails to articulate his point. I have been alienated from digital radio, not by the complexities which seem to attend it, but by, alas, an almost incomprehensible and thereby an uninformative piece on the subject.
iudex.

There is a very simple reason why digital radio is going to be a failure. Podcasts

Digital radio is much like IPTV, and idea that had it's day about eight years ago, but has been long left in the dust by advances in other areas. Today people are listening to their mp3 players (of which iPods are only one type) and that is only going to increase in the future.

I have 150 music CDs and access to a MP3 download site which has several million tracks available.

I have 40 data CDs purchased for $5 each containing up to thirty hours of the best radio comedy from the last 70 years.

I have four MP3 players, including one in my car.

I have thirty video DVDs and can buy a whole series of classic TV shows for about $30 at any time.

I have Last.fm running on my PC and can choose to hear streamed tracks in the style of any recording artist.

I have access to the websites and archived files of BBC7 and Radio National.

Er - just explain to me again why I need digital radio?

This digital mess is all the leacy of Howard
and the commercial stations lobby to keep a monopoly

If You are like minded please sign this IARBA Petition and join us in
asking the Minister and the ACMA to reverse the previous governments
unfair ban on new entries to Digital radio. With the inclusion of DRM
theres plenty of room for left out community stations narrowcast and
narrowband and new entrants.
Senator the Hon
Stephen Conroy

Minister for Broadband,
Communications and the
Digital Economy

DEPUTY LEADER OF THE
GOVERNMENT IN THE SENATE

Suite MG70
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Sir,

We the digitally undersigned ask that in the interests of media
diversity, fairness and good planning that you reverse the the
previous governments unfair ban on new entries into Digital radio.

We ask that you consider a two-tiered Digital Radio implementation
that includes the DRM Standard so that country areas will not be left
out of access to Digital Radio. As you may be aware DAB Plus performs
poorly outside metropolitan areas.

We ask that DRM be included both for those broadcasting stations left
out of current DAB Plus proposals: existing community stations,
narrowcasters, narrowband stations and also that it be included for
new entrants.

We also ask that in any strategy that your department undertakes to
promote Digital Receivers, that any such promotion includes those
models that can receive both the DAB Plus and DRM Standards.

DRM can fit 8 CD-quality stations into the same amount of bandwidth
that DAB uses. DRM is the worlds only, open standard, universal,
digital on-air system. Peter Senger, Chairman of DRM: "DRM is a great
way to enjoy not only international radio stations, but also some
local and national radio. In many countries, particularly those with
large rural areas, the combination of DRM and DAB gives broadcasters a
tailor-made way to upgrade to digital radio and give their listeners
access to a greater range of stations than ever before."

Sign tthe petition

http://www.isonliveradio.com/iarba/petition/

=Google Groups Beta
australia.radio.broadcast.moderated
Visit this group

http://groups.google.com/group/ausytaliaradiobroadcastingmoderated=

Keith A, you might be interested in my submission to the Inquiry into the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 and related bills:

This submission does not address the detail of the bills, but the underlying basis for sound media policy, whether broadcast or delivered by other modes. I suggest the following principles:

1. Media policy should be directed to the benefit of end-users and the community at large, rather to any particular vested interests.

2. Policy should not discriminate between modes of delivery in terms of content, geographical reach or other factors. All modes of delivery should be able to provide whatever content is technically feasible for that mode – no content should be reserved to a particular mode of delivery.

While these principles would appear self-evident, they are far from the basis of existing and proposed policy. There is no prima facie case for restricting particular forms of content, e.g. full-motion video, drama, sport etc to a particular mode of delivery, e.g. free-to-air tv. While some content is inherently constrained in its potential delivery mode by technological constraints - for example, a print newspaper can not include full-motion video, except on accompanying discs – there is no sound public policy reason for present and proposed discrimination by mode of delivery.

The broader context is that change is the essence of existence, of economic growth, of human communication. As regards economics, policies which embrace openness, competition, change and innovation will promote growth. Policies which have the effect of restricting or slowing change by protecting or favouring particular industries or firms are likely over time to slow innovation and growth to the disadvantage of the community. Similarly, policies which deny change and restrict the output options for particular media and related industries will limit consumer choice and weaken competitive pressures for innovation which better serves consumers and the community.

Subject to laws governing, e.g., slander and pornography, there are no defensible grounds for the artificial distinctions maintained by the government’s proposals. Media reform has been discussed for decades. It is time for real reform to be delivered.

Podcasting and the ubiquity of MP3 players have doomed digital radio before it even launches in Australia, one of the country's leading broadcasting academics said.
Others are calling for the introduction
also of DRMto compliment DAB plus
and the reversal of banning new entrants
cooked up by howard and the CRA to keep
moopolies
viable
Existing radio broadcasters are relying on the upcoming digital services - set to launch in Australia on January 1 next year - to help them stay modern and continue attracting younger audiences.

Digital radio will initially launch only in the country's capital cities and requires listeners to buy new digital radio receivers. Radios already installed in devices such as cars who will need new aerials and mobile phones will need to be upgraded as they are now analogue only.

But Jock Given, a professor of media and communications at Swinburne University, who specialises in digital broadcasting, predicts the industry will have difficulty convincing people to upgrade.

He said that, unlike upgrading from analogue to digital television, where there were clear image quality benefits, digital radio didn't add much to the digital audio offerings already freely available on the internet and painlessly portable via MP3 players.

Given's comments were sparked by GCap, one of Britain's largest commercial radio operators, announcing it would quit digital radio to focus on analogue and online services. GCap's reasoning was that digital radio was not an "economically viable platform".

"The idea that everyone is going to do it [upgrade] just because it's digital, I think that's naive, because the present is digital," said Given, who recently wrote the book Turning Off The Television: Broadcasting's Uncertain Future.

"The sorts of people who are most likely to be interested in new kinds of [digital radio] products seem to me to be quite likely the people who have already taken up new kinds of [online] digital audio products and may find what digital radio is able to offer them a bit underwhelming by comparison with what they've already got."