Hi-Def Radio Consumer Sales Still Lagging

Four years after the first high-definition radio receivers hit the U.S. market and two years after RadioShack started selling them, sales are still considered miniscule compared with the broader terrestrial radio market. In addition, consumer awareness continues to lag and such competitive options as satellite and Internet radio are complicating efforts to make the digital radio standard a mass-market phenomenon. Nearly 1,750 AM/FM stations, out of about 13,000, covering 83 percent of the United States are broadcasting digitally, while about 800 offer original content on HD voice side channels, according to iBiquity Digital, the developer and licensor of HD radio technology. HD radio sales in the U.S. totaled about 300,000 units last year, with about 1 million expected to be sold this year, iBiquity says. But that’s still... [read full story]