Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) will tomorrow unveil a research paper exploring the potential installation of DAB+ receiver chips in smartphones, in what could open up the digital radio market to increased listeners across metropolitan and regional Australia.
In a session entitled “Madness: The Streaming Bottleneck” taking place at the CRA radio conference in Melbourne, the peak body will present its findings, which correspond with soon-to-be-issued research papers authored by the UK Government and the BBC, as well as a Swedish radio organisation.
The aim is to explore the positives and negatives of convincing smartphone manufacturers to collaborate on the initiative, dubbed the ‘Universal Smartphone Radio Project’. Parties involved agree that a DAB+ chip would circumvent the need to access costly data-hungry mobile apps - therefore making digital radio a free listening experience. It would also give regional listeners the chance to tune as the result of a different spectrum being made available.
Whereas sales of DAB sets in the UK have flagged in recent years, official data relating to DAB+ in Australia shows that listening is at an all-time high with 21.4% or almost 2.8 million people tuning in each week in the five metropolitan capital cities alone. Some 20+ stations broadcast in the five metropolitan areas on DAB+, however, because of spectrum restrictions it continues to be unavailable in regional areas; something that could be solved by the introduction of DAB+ on smartphones.
CRA CEO Joan Warner said: “Commercial radio stations in Australia want to provide live, local radio across all platforms for listeners – car, home and mobile phones. DAB+ is currently available on mobile phones via an app but it is important to ensure access to broadcast DAB+ digital radio via smartphones.
"Work is underway on the most cost effective way to achieve this goal. Research shows the majority of consumers want DAB+ broadcast chips in phones, with 60% of respondents to a recent survey stating that they would benefit from having a DAB+ broadcast chip in their mobile phone. This figure has grown year on year, up from 52% in 2013 and 58% in 2012," she added.
Digital radio broadcasts on the DAB+ spectrum in Australia and is available on DAB+ enabled devices, such as digital radios.
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