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DRM Receivers – Your Questions Answered

DRM Receivers – Your Questions 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.

30th November 2020

 

Why are DRM receivers costly? [Dhananjay Patwardhan]

 

At the beginning of the roll-out of any technology, initial consumer devices are more costly than once the mass production has started. This has been proven and confirmed by all past technology innovations, from mobile phones to smart phones, from media players to TV sets, and also by initial FM and DAB+ receivers. The reason is simply that with initial production, the manufacturers need to regain the whole investment on developing those new receivers with a relatively small quantity. Effectively the cost therefore is mostly one-time development effort, not the cost to produce a single device. Once the mass orders from retailers arrive (after the official launch of the broadcasters and information campaign to listeners), the device cost quickly decreases to the actual per-unit production cost. And that cost for DRM receivers – while always slightly higher than for established analogue devices – can still be very low particularly in comparison to other digital radio standards.