At The NAB Show in Las Vegas this week, Bob Struble, president/CEO of iBiquity Digital, updated the installed footprint of HD Radio. iBiquity Digital developed and owns the HD Radio technology, the U.S. digital radio platform.
Struble presented two key distribution indicators:
- Car adoption: 16.5-million equipped cars on the road
- Station adoption: 2,200 U.S. radio stations are transmitting in HD digital.
For additional color: Every “major” car company installs HD receivers in at least some of its models, and a new HD-equipped car is sold every four seconds. Those 2,200 radio stations represent 78% of U.S. listening, and 94 of the top 100 stations, in terms of billings, use HD.
Congratulations on iBiquity on pulling off one of the greatest sales jobs ever. Getting station owners to buy into a system that doesn’t work and is already obsolete when compared to what clearly is the delivery system of the 21st Century, you know, where consumers spend the majority of their time, the Internet… Well, who would of thought it could be done?
It’s interesting that Mr. Struble fails to mention how many stations have turned off their iBiquity systems, nor does he provide any listener metrics. Surely, there must be at least a single success story describing how the IBiquity system paid for itself and is generating significant revenues and ratings success? Funny, I can’t think of one.
Personally, I have yet to meet a person who is aware that HD radio exist, much less makes use of it. That station owners continue to invest in this abomination while failing to properly invest in establishing their businesses on the Internet should become the new definition of insanity.