Pioneer Says No Thanks To HD Radio
Pioneer North America, Inc. (“PNA”) does not take a position as to whether the proposed merger should be approved. However, iBiquity Digital Corporation (“iBiquity”) has proposed certain conditions on the merger, should it be approved.
I explained PNA’s opposition to these conditions. The iBiquity conditions would limit the breadth of radio product offerings to consumers, limit which radio component suppliers’ products be designed into radios, have the effect of decreasing AM/FM tuning performance, unnecessarily increase costs to consumers uninterested in HD Radio and interfere with the useful and healthy free market mechanisms extant in radio electronics purchases.
Free terrestrial analog and terrestrial digital radio services should be allowed to compete with paid satellite digital radio services on an even playing field. Consumers should be allowed to choose radios which meet their needs, without undue government influence. It is our belief that HD Radio should compete in the marketplace with other ra-dio services: if free local digital terrestrial radio services are compelling to consumers, HD Radio technology will succeed in the marketplace. In this case, the free market is the best measure of the public interest.
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520011523]
Pioneer North America, Inc. (“PNA”) does not take a position as to whether the proposed merger should be approved. However, iBiquity Digital Corporation (“iBiquity”) has proposed certain conditions on the merger, should it be approved.
I explained PNA’s opposition to these conditions. The iBiquity conditions would limit the breadth of radio product offerings to consumers, limit which radio component suppliers’ products be designed into radios, have the effect of decreasing AM/FM tuning performance, unnecessarily increase costs to consumers uninterested in HD Radio and interfere with the useful and healthy free market mechanisms extant in radio electronics purchases.
Free terrestrial analog and terrestrial digital radio services should be allowed to compete with paid satellite digital radio services on an even playing field. Consumers should be allowed to choose radios which meet their needs, without undue government influence. It is our belief that HD Radio should compete in the marketplace with other ra-dio services: if free local digital terrestrial radio services are compelling to consumers, HD Radio technology will succeed in the marketplace. In this case, the free market is the best measure of the public interest.
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520011523]
