Paying for HD radio channels?

[raccoonradio]

Just remember like they say in the ads all you do is buy an HD radio and you never have to pay a
subscription fee! That's right, it's not like XM or Sirius, you never have to pay!

Or will you?
One interesting line in the Wikipedia entry for "HD Radio"

>>The broadcasting industry is seeking FCC approval for conditional access, that is, enabling the extra programs to be available only by paid subscription (on future models of HD Radio).

Hmm. So, if you want all-Irish, a talk AM simulcast on HD FM, classic country, all-blues, classic soul, or whatever else is being offered on HD-2 or HD-3 just remember it's free, free, free!

For now...?

 

[JohnnyElectron]

I'm still waiting for a station here to put something innovative and a nice niche format on their HD-2, but not, just a rehash of what's on the main channel - so why tell your friends to buy a radio? IF they want to sell HD radios, they will go way out of the box and put an All Sinatra, or Beautiful Music, or MOR Pop Vocals on HD-2 and get the radio listeners to WANT to buy and HD radio and WANT to tell their friends about it.
Let the local college kids have their own live show on your HD-3?

 

[Savage]

It's definitely true that HD's mad scientists have delusions of subscribers actually paying for bandwidth-strangled, coverage-challenged unreliable HD digital programming someday. But I would counsel not losing much sleep over it.

The highest price-point for new consumer electronics generally comes at rollout, which in the case of HD Radio, was over with sometime in 2007. And we have seen what has evolved as that price point: generally, consumers don't want digital radio even if it's free.

Sure, there are sporadic reports of radio geeks and other insiders being willing to shell out $40ish for a Mighty Red or Insignia portable, and some curious first-adopters paid $100 to $200 for everything from BA Receptors to Accurians to Radiosophy plastic boomboxes. On the other hand a local HD broadcaster did a promotion with a car dealer where every new car purchaser got a free HD adaptor. After 90 days the dealer asked the station to come and get the aftermarket HD tuners because nobody wanted them - even as giveaways.

And of course nobody has had the temerity to suggest charging for programming yet. Nor is it likely in the dimly forseeable long-term future.

Seems that greed and myopia generate their own rewards.

 

[raccoonradio]

>>consumers don't want digital radio even if it's free.

I was one of those who paid the $40 sale price for the Insignia portable. Recep is spotty; depends where you are. Some poss. interesting stations in Boston IF you can get them (at my workplace I get a few in the break room, and maybe just 1 or 2 on workroom floor). I was hoping to get the WMKK-HD 3 that is rebroadcasting
WEEI for Red Sox games but it's tough to pick up (oh, far be it for Entercom to interrupt their jockless station
for a few hours per night to simulcast baseball on the regular analog of very loud, clear station--though WMKK does get high
ratings and makes money, but I guess I just have to settle for TRYING to get the HD 3 on my HD portable...
AM recep very tough in my workplace.

Well, I guess I can always record part of the game on an AM-FM/Cass mini boombox placed where the signal
comes in, and listen to it later, but I digress.

Boston area does have stuff like alt. rock, classic country, blues, hits of 70s, etc. If it comes in.

So...you can pay $35 for the Sony Walkman that gets AM and FM
Or pay $40 (sale price) for the Insignia FM/HD (a couple AM signals on HD3 signals) and get sound quality that isn't all that much better than reg. FM and SOME alternative programming.

It's OK but not spectacular.

HD radio: makes FM radio sound like...FM radio...
And AM radio, if it's offered (no AM band on that portable) sound like...AM without static

Or maybe you just need really good headphones...

 

[Tom Wells]

No, it's just that every modern convenience developed since silicon transistors overtook germaniums in the 1960's has been to the disservice of and in disrespect of AM. Finally the pollution is getting ot the point that people can't pick up FM siganls either.
This is either good or bad, depending on whether we are motivated to:

a Clean up the spectrum through proper engineering, design, and legally mandated application of such proper measures,

b Give up on broadcast radio, and keep adding noise until cellphones and broadband services also can't work above the rising
level of interference created by our modern conveniences, somehow exempt from any shred of FCC Pt 15 standards compliance.

The whole point of digital is to turn radio into a for-pay service.
I know there's people who will naysay this, but any "business technology" naturally schemes to maintain monopoly by any means, and
technology layer additions from proprietary, "approved" systems certainly fill the bill.

See how quickly after the HD TV revolution occured that there's real discussion about turning off the transmitters?

 

[Carmine5]

It would have to be a spectacular event, something equivalent to a Beatles reunion concert live and uninterrupted, that would induce people to pay for an HD broadcast.

Of course, for this to happen people would have to own HD Radios, which means people would have to know and be excited about the technology, which means someone(s) would have to spend to advertise the technology... Darn! The devil is always in the details.

c5

I might add, that they are thinking about conditional access for mobile DTV as well. But in a recent survey, it showed that while consumer interest is high for MDTV, that interest extends only to a free service, not paid.