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Paid Access for HD Stations
The FCC approval of HD Radio also includes requests for comments on for-fee broadcasting: While the public airwaves are open, digital multicast channels may be available (that's still a may) on a for-fee basis. Radio World reports that iBiquity has been working with NDS to enable conditional access for one-time events, higher-quality audio, or other services. This could also allow secured access for first responders or adult-themed channels.
This could also cover reading services, which are broadcast on subcarriers currently, and for which there is a lot of interest among broadcasters to migrating to thin slices of digital spectrum to reduce cost and improve quality. Reading services are provided as a public service where copyrighted materials may be read over the air under a statutory exemption because of the purpose. Conditional access would ensure only impaired people would continue to have access without violating copyright or restricting those core listeners from the service.
NPR's Mike Starling, a long-time digital broadcasting backer, repeated something in this article he told me a couple of years ago: That he could see a non-pledge-drive alternative station for donors! Which is something that would drive pledges to public radio stations.
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