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.