It looks as if plans to develop Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in Taiwan have failed. The development of DAB in Taiwan has passed through three stages: planning, preparation and a final stage characterized by setbacks. It now looks like it may disappear altogether.
In 2001, the government planned 10 groups of radio stations, including most of Taiwan’s most renowned radio stations, to take part in a DAB trial. It was a big project and participants were full of hope. At the preparatory stage in 2004, the first round of applications for digital broadcasting licences opened.
After the application review in 2005, six companies obtained trial licences but only one, Tai Yi Digital Broadcasting, went ahead with trial broadcasts. A joint venture established between Taiwan Mobile — which owned 49.7 percent of the shares — E-Ten Information Systems Co, Hit FM and IC FM 97.5, it was the only operator led by telecommunications companies.
After two years of trials, DAB experienced problems, partly because of a lack of promotion, inadequate public knowledge of the technology and high-priced DAB radios that few were willing to purchase. As a result there were too few consumers to keep DAB up and running. In July this year, Taiwan Mobile announced that Tai Yi would be dissolved, and the outlook for other DAB providers is not very bright.
The biggest problem for Taiwan’s DAB industry was a lack of forward-looking policies. Many reports show that lack of promotion is the biggest problem with digital technology in Taiwan. In a survey on radio broadcasting conducted by the Government Information Office in 2006, 57 percent of businesses agreed and 34 percent strongly agreed that the government lacked effective policies, while 55 percent agreed and 34 percent strongly agreed that the government lacked supporting measures.
(Source: Taipei Times)
on Nov 30th, 2008 at 17:55
Hardly a week goes past without there being another story about a failed digital radio plan or a scrapped trial.
I wonder whether, as we wait for the next generation ( which I believe will be wireless internet ) of broadcast medium, the analogue channels will get a reprieve.
Is it possible, even, that it will stage a comeback, as broadcasters who had been holding back, waiting for digital to succeed, realise that it is not going to happen and plan for an analogue future in the short term ?
It will be interesting to see how much interest there is in the FM and Medium Wave channels when the bidding starts in the Netherlands which I think is only just over a year away.
on Dec 1st, 2008 at 14:45
I can\’t help thinking that most broadcasters would be better off using DRM + in the future. As it sits alongside existing analogue transmissions, it would probably be a lot cheaper than trying to run FM+DAB, as you don\’t need a myriad of extra transmitter sites. Subsidising an expensive broadcast chain is probably the last thing broadcasters want with the growing uptake of internet radio and the decline in advertising revenue.
on Dec 2nd, 2008 at 08:52
DAB is a poor method of transmission and reception because many multiplex providers seem to value quantity over quality by cramming as many stations as possible into their DAB multiplexes and trading off bitrates to get extra stations in reducing soundquality and robustness;plus how customers would you get thru advertising on a radiostation exclusive to the web only? Very few if any. Facts are facts not everybody has the internet nor wants it. There will STILL be people out there who want to use conventional radio sets equipped with DRM/DRM+/DAB/DAB+/MW/LW/SW/FM bands on them to sample the new technology as well as keep the existing wavebands-like digital switchover in the UK with Freeview once radio stations are on DRM-MW/DRM-LW/DRM-SW,DRM+ on FM and DAB/DAB+ and sets are in the market to enable that, then full switchover can take place(it just needs an joint effort on the part of the set manufacturers,broadcasters and retailers to work together,get sets into the consumer market and have awareness and advertising campaigns to promote digital radio DR)and DRM+ on the 87-108Mhz band offers more stations at CD quality with a good level of service and reception and could very well easily go alongside regular FM transmissions (you can use existing FM transmitter infrastructure to piggyback the DRM+ technology on top of regular FM from the same site)at a cheaper cost than running an expensive network of DAB and FM tx\’s.