6,955 research outputs found
Digital radio report
In common with other industrialised countries, the radio industry in Australia is in the midst of a significant transformation. Traditional analogue radio services, broadcasting on AM and FM frequencies, remain popular and continue to attract substantial audiences and revenue. However, the analogue platform is very mature, offering only limited capacity for technical change and development, and FM spectrum is now largely fully occupied in population dense areas. In addition, AM transmissions face growing pressure from urban development and related increasing signal interference.
The Australian radio industry therefore retains a strong interest in the opportunities presented by digital radio for service innovation and future growth. To date, digital terrestrial radio services have been licensed for the five mainland state capital cities,1 and trials involving such services are underway in Canberra and Darwin. Within the mainland state capital cities, take up of digital terrestrial radio services continues to grow slowly but steadily with listenership reaching almost 25 per cent in the first quarter of 2015.2 Listenership has benefitted from increased availability of digital radio receivers in motor vehicles (a primary source of listening) and the recent additional rollout of in-fill transmitters increasing coverage of the services in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
The cost and complexity of rolling out Digital Audio Broadcasting Plus (DAB+)-based digital terrestrial radio services across regional Australia3 present major challenges for the industry. The need to cover large geographic areas with small and dispersed populations offers unique challenges which have not been faced in many international markets.
At the same time, Australians are rapidly adopting new types of technology with the growth of online audio platforms such as Spotify and Pandora. These services are complementing the move by traditional radio businesses—most notably the national broadcasters—to deliver radio services online or through mobile apps. The announcement by Apple of a move into the streamed audio market will only increase the choices available to audiences. These services may herald a generational change in listening habits with significant implications for traditional platforms over time. That said, there are ongoing challenges with the bandwidth and data transmission requirements of these services being delivered to large audiences over mobile and wireless platforms.
The digital terrestrial radio industry is subject to a range of regulatory requirements in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA) and the Radiocommunications Act 1992 (the Radiocommunications Act), which govern matters such as the planning and start up of services, and the sharing of and access to the transmission multiplex in each area. Against the background of changes in the radio industry, this review considers whether changes are required to this framework to provide greater flexibility to the industry and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) to plan for change and ensure that the radio industry is well placed to determine its future strategies for digital services.
Key issues examined by the review included:
the current state of digital terrestrial radio in Australia, and the impacts of alternative technologies on the industry and listeners;
whether Australia should set a digital switchover date for analogue commercial, national, community or other terrestrially transmitted radio services;
what legislative/regulatory arrangements should be in place to assist the rollout of digital terrestrial radio services in regional areas; and
whether changes are required to the legislative regime for digital radio, including to reduce the regulatory burden on industry
With the Support of Listeners Like You : Lessons from U.S. Public Radio
This chapter provides an assessment of public broadcasting in the United States. It asserts that European public service broadcasting (PSB) could learn from U.S. practices that may prove to be particularly relevant in the current PSB climate
Digital Radio Strategies in the United States: A Tale of Two Systems
This essay analyzes how, despite early interest in the Digital Audio Broadcasting standard (DAB) in the United States, an alternative in-band system (HD Radio) was developed as the approved digital radio standard
Walking the talk : an investigation of the pedagogical practices and discourses of an international broadcasting organisation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Adult Education, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
Increasingly our knowledge of the world around us comes from the media,
mediated by professional broadcasters. As the education and training of
broadcasters has progressively become associated with educational
institutions there has been more theorising about what broadcasters should
know and how they should be educated, however the actual educational
and training practices of broadcasting organisations remains under
researched and under theorised. This research looks at the educational
and training practices of an international broadcasting organisation and
how they are sustained by the organisational ethos through a series of
interviews with people directly involved in the organisation‟s training
practices and an examination of a selection of the organisation‟s
promotional and policy documents. From this comes a picture of an
organisation committed to excellence and also a vision of broadcasting as
an emancipatory activity. This commitment and vision is reflected in its inhouse
training practices and also its media development work. The
interviews with trainers, project managers, administrators and researchers
reveal broadcasters who are pragmatic idealists and reflective practitioners
and whose passion and commitment to the transformative powers of
education and training are undeniable
The Meeting of Two Cultures: Public Broadcasting on the Threshold of the Digital Age
Provides a summary of discussions held in November 2007 on "Public Broadcasting: The Digital Challenge" among representatives of foundations, public broadcasting corporations and academia. Includes essays on visions for the future of public media
Harnessing Rural Radio for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in the Philippines
The working paper documents the pilot rural radio campaign, dubbed as 'Climate Change i-Broadkas Mo', implemented by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in Southeast Asia (CCAFS SEA) and the Philippine Federation of Rural Broadcasters (PFRB) in strategic regions of the Philippines from 2015 to 2018. The radio campaign provided PFRB affiliated broadcasters with scripts and ready-to-be-aired (RTBA) interviews on climate-smart agriculture. The lessons learned from the project can be used to enhance the capacities of rural broadcasters on climate change reporting and to create a demand for radio-based distance learning, not only in Northern Philippines, but in similar regions in Southeast Asia
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Mapping digital media: digital television, the public interest, and European regulation
Discussion of digital television has focused on switch-over dates, set-top boxes and the technical and economic implications of switch-over. This paper, by contrast, focusses on public interest obligations and citizenship values such as freedom, access, universality, political pluralism and content diversity.
Petros Iosifidis distinguishes broadly between public interest priorities as understood in western Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. After assessing some obvious benefits of digital TV (extra channels, converged communications, enhanced interactivity and mobility), he argues that the public interest outcomes from the introduction of new technologies like the internet and digital TV will depend on how people use them, for new technology is only a vehicle by means of which public interest goals can be achieved.
He then considers digital TV penetration data from across Europe, as well as the status of national digital switch-over plans, stressing that northern Europe is much more advanced in this regard than southern and eastern-central Europe.
Outlining the pros and cons of digital switch-over for the public, Dr Iosifidis contends that universality and accessibility can best be ensured by maintaining public service media, which have been—and should continue to be—important conveyors of freely accessible and reliable information. Countries where television has been dominated by state broadcasters should use the new technology and in particular digital switch-over to create independent non-profit channels at both local and national levels, to foster a competitive environment and political pluralism
Public Media and Political Independence: Lessons for the Future of Journalism From Around the World
Profiles how fourteen nations fund and protect the autonomy of public media via multiyear funding, public-linked funding structures, charters, laws, and agencies or boards designed to limit political influence and ensure spending in the public interest
PACMAS state of media and communication report 2013
The PACMAS State of Media and Communication Report 2013 was undertaken through a partnership between RMIT University (Australia), the University of Goroka (Papua New Guinea) and UNITEC (New Zealand). The research for this report was developed and undertaken between June 2012 and April 2013 across 14 Pacific Island nations: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Nauru, Niue, Republic of Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The report provides a regional overview of the PACMAS key components (Media Policy, Media Systems, Media Capacity Building and Media Content) as they emerged through 212 interviews focused upon the six PACMAS strategic areas. It also provides basic background information, an overview of the media and communications landscape and discusses in detail media and communications technicians; emergency broadcast systems, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs), media associations, climate change and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). For this reason, observations on the four PACMAS components should be understood to represent changes in the media and communication environment based upon an investigation focused on the PACMAS strategic activities. Part 1 & Part II of the report make up a Regional Overview of the State of Media and Communication in the Pacific. The report also includes 14 separate Country Reports which provide additional information on the media and communications landscape specific to each of the Pacific Island countries included in the PACMAS program. The country reports were written with the objectives of the PACMAS program in mind, however they may have utility for media, communication and development practitioners across the region
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