Re: O/T the future of FM radio

"Paul D.Smith" <paul_d_smith@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:h3k46h$1c5$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Every thing I read and see is about stopping wastage, re-cycling,
stop
wasting energy etc. and all these perfectly good radios going in
the
bin.

Is it not possible that soemone will market a set-top box for
radios -
in the same way as was done for TV sets?

Yes but the cost would be prohibitive. Compare the cost and power
consumption of any DAB radio or DAB "set-top box" to the low power
trannies used by most people!

Also, if you have a set-top box then it might be possible to produce
one
which would circulate a single DAB channel around your house, but in
order
to do that, it will have to radiate a reasonably strong signal - and
guess
what your neighbours will be doing? Not there is a reasonable
spread of
FM available to receive this re-radioated DAB but how do you
co-ordinate
with all your neighbours?

It is also not easy technically for a single box to radiate more
than one
DAB channel at once so you would need extra boxes if yuor children
(say)
don't like the same station as you.

BTW the estimate is about 45m household radios.


Ofcom estimated there are 120m - 150m FM devices in-use a couple of
years ago - the 45m figure is only equipment that is used every week,
and it excludes 30m cars that have stereos that need replacing.

There are 25.3m households in the UK, so there's no way that there's
only 2 radios per household - it's just another bit of fixed Ofcom
research.


Let's estimate at £20.00
each for a set-top box and we're looking at a £90m market - wonder
why
manufacturers are keen.


Averaging over all audio equipment that contains an FM tuner - i.e.
portable radios, hi-fi systems, portable stereos, car stereos, alarm
clocks, personal radios etc etc, and bearing in mind DAB is more
expensive than FM kit, I'd say the average cost will be around £40 -
£50. Multiplying that by 120m - 150m = about £5 - £7.5 billion.




--
Steve - www.savefm.org - stop the BBC bullies switching off FM

www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - digital radio news & info

"It is the sheer volume of online audio content available via
internet-connected devices which terrifies the UK radio industry. I
believe that broadband-delivered radio will explode in the years to
come, offering very local, unregulated content, as well as opening a
window to the radio stations of the world." - from the Myers Report


.

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