Japanese news agency Kyodo reports that the planned launch of terrestrial digital radio broadcasting in Japan is facing a substantial delay. Kyodo quotes Shigeki Sato, President of Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc, as saying that five Tokyo-based commercial radio stations have decided to postpone the foundation of a joint operating company. They had planned to begin digital radio broadcasts by the end of this year, using a frequency band to be vacated through the digitization of television broadcasts. But the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry intends to allocate the frequency band “in a comprehensive manner” rather than for digital radio broadcasting services on a priority basis, making it difficult to launch the service before the full digitization of TV broadcasts slated for 2011, Sato said.
(Source: Kyodo)
