Issue 26: Turkey looks to digital
Bernie O’Neill, Project Director, WorldDAB
In 2014, Turkey’s public broadcaster, TRT (Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu), celebrated 50 years of broadcasting, and WorldDAB was there to help them celebrate, presenting DAB receivers, market information and case studies. Broadcasters in Turkey are now aware of the extent of digitisation of radio across Europe and beyond, thanks to the contributions by WorldDAB members who shared their knowledge and experience of rolling out national DAB, at the several DAB seminars that have taken place over the past year.
iTVF 2014
These seminars have been organised by iTVF, the Turkish broadcast industry conference and exhibition, and with the participation of TRT, RATEM (Professional Union of Broadcasting Organisations), and the regulatory body RTÜK – Radyo ve Televizyon Üst Kurulu – (Radio and Television Supreme Council). The next iTVF event will take place in Istanbul, 1-3 March 2016.
Turkey first investigated DAB back in 2002, before receivers were available at affordable prices. For DAB+ digital radio, this problem has now been resolved. In the last ten years, over 30 million DAB / DAB+ receivers have been sold worldwide. This growth has enabled manufacturers to benefit from economies of scale. As a result, DAB+ receivers are now available at mass market prices – entry level models are available at €20 – and prices are falling every year.
WorldDAB President, Patrick Hannon, has offered the following recommendations to Turkey as it plans to digitise radio:
- Make a clear political commitment that the future of radio is digital
- Choose DAB+ as the official digital radio standard in order to provide cost effective coverage
- Ensure the availability of receivers at a wide range of price points
- Ensure that all major stakeholders are involved in creating a roadmap to develop coverage plans that initially focus on major towns and cities – over time, coverage can be extended more widely
- Actively and consistently promote clear messages about the benefits of digital radio to retailers and consumers
Read the recommendations in full.
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