Radio Authority Urges Affordable Digital Sets

Sir Peter Gibbings, the chairman of the Radio Authority, has urged manufacturers to produce digital radio receivers at affordable prices for consumers.

Writing in the Authority’s Annual Report for 1997 he says: “We urge European manufacturers in particular to seize the opportunity which this new technology offers to help our radio services to become world leaders.”

Affordable digital radio sets are generally perceived to be crucial to the success of the new medium. Capital Radio has already ruled itself out of national digital radio partly because it believes that there will be a lack of suitable receivers (see Capital Says No To National Digital Radio).

Key figures featured in the report show that 22 local radio licences were awarded during 1997 while 628 complaints were received during the year (up slightly from 1996). Of these complaints, 38 programming complaints were upheld and 58 advertising complaints were upheld. 10 licences were also fined by the Authority during the year.

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