According to WIRED news which seems to be quoting iBiquity…
HD Radio receiver sales reached the “low hundred thousands” in 2006, a significant jump from 2005, but miniscule next to XM’s and Sirius’ more than 13.5 million satellite radio subscribers.
This is a lot less than I expected and below all the projections I have seen to date.
The WIRED article also devotes a lot of digital ink to the analogy between HD radio in the US and digital radio in the UK – which have almost nothing in common except the term “radio.”
As WIRED puts it, “[In the US] the response from listeners has so far been lukewarm.”
So what’s the value in spotlighting statistics like these?
It’s to argue that doing more of what achieved these kinds of results will not likely achieve results different from these. It will take a wholesale re-evaluation of the HD radio effort to right this ship on the bumpy ocean of consumer preference.
We must acknowledge that something’s wrong if we are to make things right.
Because at some point, it will be too late. And if we reach that point, it will be those with their heads in the sand who are to blame.
The oner part of the article I found fascinating is that
HD users in UK can record songs off the radio. The very thing XM wants its subscribers to do. This would be a great advantage for HD, if it could get it’s act together.
As you probably know, the RIAA is out to stop this dead in its tracks.
We are our own worst enemy.
The recording industry, the artists, and the Future of Music Coalition have a lot of opinions about what is wrong with radio. But they aren’t interested in any form of compromise that might cost THEM money. They are only interested in things that will make them MORE moeny, at the expense of radio.
HD Radio is sadly the biggest hoax going. Contrary to what the consumer believes, the HD in HDRadio does not stand for High-Def. SHOCKER!
It actually means nothing and is nothing more then a farce to manipulate unknowing consumers. Don’t believe me, read Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD-Radio
Well Mr. George, if you were actually keeping up with your business as you are a radio producer, you would know that Ibiquity Digital Radio the company that is developing HD Radio owns the patent for Store and Replay Radio and in fact XM/Sirius must pay Ibiquity every time a unit is sold. So they could easily implement and allow the technology, but then there is the problem of royalties getting in the way. Also it is really up to companies to come forward to them and say they would like to develop a unit that does this because Ibiquity only develops the transmission side of the equation and lets manufacturers develop the receiving units.