"AUSTRIA: media regulator puts DAB radio on hold"
IBOCcrock
On 3 November 2009, the Austrian media regulator RTR presented the
results of a study that had been commissioned in December 2008 on the
potential for digital radio in Austria. Dr Alfred Grinschgl, managing
director of RTR, commented: “The reason we in Austria are not
presently digitising radio is that, in neighbouring Germany, there is
no unanimous agreement on adopting DAB or DAB+ and therefore no
successful large-scale launch."
ORF, Austrian state radio, technical director Peter Moosmann
commented
that the time was not yet “ripe” for the introduction of digital
radio
and he rejected the notion of planned FM switch-off. “In every
Austrian household, there are four or five radio sets that would need
to be replaced with one blow,” he said. “We do not want to force the
listener to switch, but want to entice them to digital radio with the
appeal of new radio formats”.
The chairman of the association of Austrian private broadcasters,
Christian Stogmuller, said that the successful launch of digital
radio
in Austria could only happen under a single European-wide technical
standard, the existence of sufficient digital radio devices in the
market and a significant financial commitment from public funds to
launch digital radio.
The Austrian Association of Free Radios, VFRO, said it was sceptical
because DAB/DAB+ is designed for large-scale radio services, whereas
it suggested alternative technologies such as the DRM+ system be used
for expanding local radio.
Michael Wagenhofer, managing director of transmission company ORS
(60%
owned by ORF), said: “The introduction of a digital radio
transmission
standard will require simulcasting [broadcasting content on both
analogue and digital] for about 15 years because the car industry
alone has a six-year implementation cycle”. He estimated the cost of
building DAB multiplex infrastructure in Austria would be around 8m
Euros.
Dr Grinschgl of RTR said that the anticipated carriage cost of DAB
transmission for a local station would be around 100,000 Euros per
annum, and that nationwide coverage on DAB would cost 800,000 Euros
per annum. He warned that, if individual stations had to bear the
costs of broadcasting on both FM and DAB, then DAB would develop only
“very slowly”.
Back in June 2008, an ORF article on digital radio had noted: “The
reason for the lack of consumer interest in digital radio is that RTR
[the regulator] licenses a good range of conventional analogue radio
services. The consumer is more than satisfied with the existing
diversity of content and the quality of reception”.
Meanwhile, at the Media Days event in Munich this week, Jurgen Doetz,
president of VPRT, the German association of private broadcasters,
was
reported to have proclaimed: “Digital radio is dead, dead, dead”.
http://grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/austria-media-regul...
You'de think that these countries would finally learn about digital
radio - LOL!
Nick Name
Austria has 9Khz spacing that we don't have in the US! - LOL!