New Delhi, Jul 23 (IANS): As the digital consumption of entertainment and news grow multifold in India, digital radio is set to change the entire creator economy landscape, giving millions of people options to discover music and live programming in a brand new way, Ashruf El Dinary, SVP, Digital Platform at US-based Xperi Corporations, said on Saturday.

In a mobile-first country with more than 500 million smartphone users, music and content streaming has seen a tremendous rise on hand-held devices in India.

TV has also seen the phenomenal rise of OTT and FM radio 2.0 is the way forward to tap millennials and Gen Z listeners.

"Radio is still analog in most parts of the country. HD Radio broadcasting allows broadcasters to compete with the pure play digital platforms and meet consumer expectations for a media rich experience. The technology will allow expansion of media voices and content in a cost-effective broadcast," El Dinary told IANS.

HD Radio by Xperi Corporations is currently available from more than 40 manufacturers across 200 passenger vehicle models in more than 75 million vehicles. 

It also supports both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. The HD Radio broadcasting has been successfully deployed across many countries, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Philippines and Romania.

According to El Dinary, their talks with the Indian government have been fruitful so far in bringing the digital radio technology to the country.

The All India Radio (AIR) recently submitted its report to Prasar Bharati about the digital radio technology trials conducted recently, and the further testing is on.

‘Whenever the decision is made in this regard, the industry will begin laying over the infrastructure needed for digital radio expansion," he said.

HD Radio did a trial with AIR and demonstrated its tech feasibility, signal quality and more.

"We completed trials in 2021 and reports have been generated in multiple ways. Our tech has been very mature as we have developed an entire ecosystem around digital radio in many countries," El Dinary said.

The HD Radio system leverages "whitespace" between allotted transmission frequencies to transmit additional audio channels and programming on the same broadcast infrastructure and antenna system.

The result is a hybrid digital/analog signal within a broadcaster's existing FM band.