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There is a push for new broadcast services designed to provide digital radio and digital television (DTV) to the automotive sector, according to market research firm iSuppli Corp.
According to the study, these new services and formats move the radio and television agenda up a notch, with enhanced broadcast capabilities that promise to add value for automotive manufacturers.
While first-generation digital radio and television services primarily were focused on delivering traditional program content—with little significant service differentiation from current analog services—next-generation services promise to provide tailored content as well as delivery mechanisms able to leverage enhanced features of the technology. These features include telematics and datacast services such as traffic, weather, electronic program guides and location-based services, the report said.
“The major problem for digital radio is the simple fact that good old analog FM radio ain’t that bad,” said Richard Robinson, principal analyst for automotive electronics at the market-research firm iSuppli Corp, in a statement. “No one doubts when moving from AM to FM there is a steep change in quality, but when moving from FM to satellite there is no apparent improvement in quality—which is another problem for satellite manufacturers.”
The report said that while the Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) standard is destined to remain limited to the United Kingdom, Hybrid Digital (HD) radio in the United States could replace backbone analog radio services, with its capability to leverage existing terrestrial broadcast infrastructures.
iSuppli expects shipments of HD radios to grow from 919,000 units in 2007 to 16.8 million by 2012. By then, shipments are expected to exceed those of satellite radios XM and Sirius, both in financial trouble and presently pondering a merger.
In the DTV automotive space, broadcast service models and hardware developments are being pressured by three principal factors: technology, content, and cost, according to iSuppli. The firm said that numerous technical issues, including providing uninterrupted delivery of picture and audio in a moving vehicle, remain before massive implementation of this technology could occur.
According to iSuppli, shipments of mobile DVB-H mobile TVs will grow from 129,000 in 2007 to 5.9 million by 2012, while ISDB-T sets will grow from 1.2 million to 4.07 million over the same period.
iSuppli expects automotive suppliers to exploit the potential value added through these digital broadcast products by providing foundation services, as well as the enhanced datacast services that are promised in both broadcast arenas.
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Spencer Chin is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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