The Radio Industry has been awarded a research grant of $2.2 million to fund the next stages of industry research into digital radio technologies. The news of the grant comes as all three of Australia’s radio industry sectors, commercial, government and community, have developed a closer working relationship on digital radio.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has announced that Digital Radio Broadcasting Australia (a consortium of commercial and public broadcasters) will receive a $2.2 million Industry Cooperative Innovation Program (ICIP) grant for a project to develop processes, infrastructure and devices that will take Australia’s broadcasting capability to the next level.
Welcoming the news of the grant funding, CRA’s Joan Warner has told radioinfo:
“We’re very pleased to see the government supporting the industry in the critical planning phase for the introduction of digital radio, which will provide Australians with higher quality free to air radio services. Radio is an essential service and an important information and entertainment channel for all Australians, and this grant will help the industry with its planning to take radio to the next exciting stage of its development.”
Warner says the funding will be used partly to conduct a ground-breaking trial of digital radio using a new AAC+ coding which is more spectrum efficient than the current Mpeg 1 Layer II.
“If this trial is successful, it means broadcasters will be able to deliver higher quality and innovative multimedia radio services without using large amounts of valuable public spectrum.”
The radio industry views digital radio as one of the major platforms for future growth and is planning to invest an estimated $400 million in launching digital radio across Australia from 2009. Commercial radio industry leaders met yesterday to conduct a strategic think tank into radio’s future, and the Community sector’s think-tank, held last month, opened discussion within that sector about how to proceed strategically into the new era in co-operation with the commercial and government sectors.
Digital radio is one of the next big opportunities for the radio industry, according to Joan Warner:
“The media landscape is undergoing massive change and radio stations are coming under increased competition not only from our traditional local competitors, but also internationally from a range of new and emerging media and entertainment devices. We are adopting a strategic and long term approach to make sure radio continues to take the lead in terms of media innovation, and that we remain relevant and engaging to listeners into the future.”
At the commercial and community radio think tanks, issues covered included: a presence on the Sydney digital radio trial band for the community sector; how radio can benefit from the Internet and vice versa; electronic measurement and the future direction of commercial radio’s brand campaign.