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Media
Radio industry might adopt motor industry scrapping system to turn us digital
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 2 February 2010
The radio business is considering taking a leaf out the motor industry’s book by incentivising the destruction of analogue radio sets, part of the radio sector’s bid to turn us all digital in a bid to meet the government’s target of 2015 for a switch off of FM services.
The proposal is that people would get up to a 20% discount off a nice shiny new digital radio if they hand in an old FM set when they buy it. The aim is to remove the number of old school radios still in circulation.
The move is based on the motor industry’s government-backed car trashing promotion whereby people who traded in cars more than ten years old when they bought a new one got a £2000 discount, a promotion that aimed to [a] take more polluting older cars off the roads and [b] to ensure there were fewer used cars on the market, to encourage more people to buy new vehicles to boost the flagging motor industry.
I’m not sure the government would subsidise the radio trashing in the same way they helped fund the car scrapping, which means the manufacturers of digital sets, retailers like Currys and possibly the radio station groups themselves would have to subsidise the discount scheme. Digital Radio UK, which is overseeing the switchover to digital, says it is currently consulting all parties about the idea.
