04 May Digital Radio – Your Question Answered
Our best specialists will respond in brief to your questions. We will post them regularly. Please submit them in writing and in audio with your picture and we will post the answers here. Please keep your questions short and relevant and send them to: projectoffice@drm.
4th May 2021
How can digital radios become as cheap as analogue? [UK Dxer]
Economics dictates that when a small number of items are produced, their manufacturing and purchase costs are high. When articles are mass-produced, economies of scale allow significant cost reductions as is the case with analogue AM receivers, simple and cheap as they are mass produced. DRM receivers are also getting cheaper and will be quite cheap once they are mass produced, but they will never be as cheap as analogue receivers. However, we know, from the example of smart phones, that if useful additional services are properly advertised such as multi-lingual broadcasts, targeted content, and a limited version of internet service with no charges, universal coverage and zero infrastructure, people will be willing to pay a bit more for a DRM receiver than for a traditional simple analogue receiver. Costs could further be reduced with government or private subsidies, given the savings they can make by reducing energy costs to power the transmitters. DRM receiver developments are gathering pace as you can see HERE.
