From Gerald (Gerry) Brown, Media Consultant in Hong Kong, the latest buzz on the Digital Broadcasters market in Asia-Pacific, South Asia and the Middle East covering the latest content and hardware moves in HDTV, 3G, IPTV, Mobile TV, terrestrial radio and TV, cable TV, broadband, satellite broadcast and streaming online.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Commercial Radio Australia reports comprehensive coverage surveys on
the first 11 commercial digital radio licence areas are now complete.
These are for the key cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide
and Perth, as well as the key population centres of Canberra, Hobart,
Darwin, Newcastle, Geelong and Wollongong. The Gold Coast licence area
and will be completed by April.

The coverage reports, undertaken by consultants Gibson Quai-AAS,
identify the planning and transmitter requirements for achieving at
least 95 per cent population coverage for digital radio in these areas
leading to detailed project costing.

Joan Warner, Commercial Radio Australia CEO said that since the Federal
Government's October 2005 framework announcement for digital radio, the
industry has begun the planning for the massive and expensive business
of a roll out.

Ms Warner further said that the focus over the next 12 to 18 months
will be on four key areas – technical and resource planning for the
digital network; investigating a more spectrum efficient audio coding
for Australia; cooperating with the Australian Communications and Media
Authority (ACMA) on spectrum planning; and working with the Federal
Government on the development of legislation.

The industry is keen to “future proof” the technology platform and at
the request of Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan has taken a
lead role in investigating Advanced Audio Coding (AAC/AAC+), a new
compression technology for use with Eureka 147 that will allow more
efficient use of public spectrum. If adopted, the new standards would
enable the industry to broadcast more and better quality services, such
as multilayering and images, using less bandwidth. However, digital
radio receivers currently in the market will not be compatible with the
new standards.

In January, Commercial Radio Australia, Austereo and the ABC joined an
international working party investigating the development of AAC+.

Ms Warner emphasizes the need in getting the technology platform right
to deliver value added services to listeners. Citing Australia as a
relatively small market, she is looking for international support for
the new coding to ensure there is a large enough market to support the
development of a wide range of attractively priced receivers.

Ms Warner says she remains extremely optimistic about the potential of
digital radio and on track with the rollout of metropolitan digital
radio networks in "two to three years".

She notes the growing popularity of mp3 players, radio podcasts and
digital music downloads to personal computers and mobile phones that
shows that listeners are ready to embrace change in the way they
experience entertainment.

"We’re at the start of this new era, and digital radio will position
radio as a key player in the future media environment,“ Ms Warner
stated.

The Australian radio industry continues to work with the ABC, SBS and
ACMA as development progresses and will continue its trial broadcasts
in Sydney, the CMA re-affirms.