Home  ›  News  ›

NAB and CTIA Clash Over FM Radio Proposal

Article Comments  15  

Sep 14, 2010, 10:03 AM   by Eric M. Zeman

The National Association of Broadcasters today published the results of a poll that queried the public's interest in including an FM radio in their cell phones. The NAB's poll, which was conducted by Harris Interactive, demonstrated that 76% of respondents would be willing to pay 30 additional cents for their cell phone if it included an FM radio. Beyond that, 66% of respondents said they would listen to an FM radio on their cell phone if it was so-equipped, with access to local weather being the top draw. The NAB said, "Our poll indicates that a sizeable majority of Americans are interested in the ability to listen to local stations in order to get news, weather and other information and would even pay a small one-time fee to get the service," said Aaron Heffron, Vice President of Public Affairs Research for Harris Interactive. "Young people seem especially enthusiastic about this additional function that they would always have in their pocket." The CTIA Wireless Association, the lobbying organization for the network operators, disagrees. It responded this morning with a statement from Vice President Jot Carpenter, "A chip mandate is the wrong answer. Government-dictated design would reduce innovation and limit consumer choice. In reality, FM capability is available today for consumers who want to access over-the-air radio on their mobile devices. Contrary to NAB's self-interested assertions, a majority of consumers do not want that capability, and the notion that they want to pay more for a functionality they do not want is ridiculous." The NAB and RIAA (music lobbying organization) proposed that all mobile devices, including cell phones, be forced to include an FM radio in order to settle a royalty dispute between the two organizations. The CTIA contends that forcing a solution to their own problems onto the cell phone industry is not acceptable.

Related

Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

Azeron

Sep 15, 2010, 10:32 PM

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

If they want radios in cell phones then damn it, write a check. That's how capitalism works.
Researcher

Sep 15, 2010, 12:22 PM

Why stop there?

Let's add AM, HD radio, CB, shortwave, TV audio and what ever else we can name.

Oh wait, AM has talk radio. That is anti big government and individual rights. Can't have that!
justfinethanku

Sep 14, 2010, 12:47 PM

Wow, what else can we force the government to impose?

I'm going to develop a new sandwich, patent the recipe and call it the Justfinesandwich.

I'm goint to make it with all kinds of ingredients I consider awesome and market it to every restaurant in the country.

Some restaurants are going to buy the recipe for it and put it on their menu because they, like me, like it a lot and they believe customers will buy the sandwich.

Other restaurants will NOT purchase the recipe, because they don't care to pay for it and believe what they have is better anyway.

For the second group of restaurants, who don't want my sandwich, I am going to go to the FDA and to congress and with a petition requesting them to FORCE all restaurants to put my sandwich on their menu AND pay me for the recipe re...
(continues)
Well as someone who is sick of getting a monthly bill every month I say tha the government should mandate that everyone gets free cell phone for life, I mean come on it's ridiculous that you should have to PAY for it....it's not a privilege, it's a ri...
(continues)
I saw it so I can do out door sales for you and make a commission. But I need a few days off and I don't do customer support, you'll have to hire some else to do that 😎
ChipDaFone

Sep 15, 2010, 1:37 AM

The carriers don't want it because

Seems to me that if you can use the radio to listen to music and news, you wouldn't be spending as much on MB charges, downloading music and using your browser to lookup news
Carriers don't want it because it increases the cost of the phone, and most customers are cheap bastards who only want the ostensibly 'free' phones.

Sure, having an additional feature on phones is nice, but none of them are free, all of them incre...
(continues)
crammy1

Sep 15, 2010, 8:21 AM

people are willing to pay an extra $.30 for this?

yeah right..coming from the same people who would only buy the phone if it is free or in BOGO...lol 🙄
wdfichtel

Sep 14, 2010, 10:19 AM

So what we show here is...

The NAB's poll, which was conducted by Harris Interactive, demonstrated that 76% of respondents would be willing to pay 30 additional cents for their cell phone if it included an FM radio. Beyond that, 66% of respondents said they would listen to an FM radio on their cell phone if it was so-equipped, with access to local weather being the top draw.


10% of the people polled are willing to pay for something they won't use? 🙄 Try again, NAB. I side with the cellphone manufacturers on this one.
That is really not at all unreasonable result....plenty of people would be willing to pay a little more for a feature that they don't know if they will ever use it just for the convenience of knowing it is available if they need it.

I have never us...
(continues)
...
Menno

Sep 14, 2010, 10:24 AM

The issue isn't if people want an fm radio

if you ask a customer if they want a phone that does everything it does now and THEN something additional, most people will say yes. It's like those polls that claim that 50% of verizon customers would get an iphone if it was on big red. a good chunk would be expecting they could get it without data, or as a bogo, or for "free" and once they find out they can't, continue using their basic flip phones.

The problem with pretty much ANY fm radio on a phone is that they suck. They're notoriously weak signals, and you need to be wearing headphones to use them. If the NAB really wanted companies to pick up the FM radios, they would partner with Samsung/HTC/Motorola someone to develop a high quality radio for the device, and then market the ...
(continues)
Because the RIAA can't play nice with the NAB?

Seriously, this will just create more lawsuits, and will increase the cost of a phone a heck of a lot more than .30 just to cover lawyer fees.

Remember, the RIAA is the one who tried saying ATT ha...
(continues)
...
 
 
Page  1  of 1

Subscribe to news & reviews with RSS Follow @phonescoop on Threads Follow @phonescoop on Mastodon Phone Scoop on Facebook Follow on Instagram

 

Playwire

All content Copyright 2001-2024 Phone Factor, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Content on this site may not be copied or republished without formal permission.