Norway goes Digital, eliminates FM radio

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 02:41:02 -0500, Kevin Vahey <kvahey@gmail.com> said:

> Garrett - I was referring more to the lack of HD Radio home receivers.

Radio is an out-of-home medium.  Home receivers are commercially
irrelevant.

The lack of portable HD tuners is more of an issue, but that market
has already been eaten by smartphones.

These days, the only reasons for a licensee to run HD are

1) To lease NPAD capacity for broadcast data services like the traffic
service I mentioned;

2) To act as nominal primary for a fill-in translator (possibly on a
leased basis) with a different format; or

3) To allow a music streaming service to be treated as "broadcast"
rather than online-only, which qualifies for a cheaper tier of rights
fees.

Saga is really big on (2); it can be workable in small markets, and
translators are not subject to the ownership cap that would otherwise
keep an owner from buying or leasing a primary station.

-GAWollman