Audio Video News

The Consumer Electronics Association, a manufacturer trade group, is opposing a mooted requirement that all portable music devices be required to include FM radio tuners.

The proposal emerged during Congressional hearings over whether AM and FM broadcasters should pay performance royalties to record companies and musicians in addition to the songwriting royalties they already pay. The National Association of Broadcasters and Recording Industry Association of America want FM tuners to be mandated in all music players, cellphones, and PDAs. This would increase the size of the radio audience, making the payment of $100 million in royalties from broadcasters to music labels more palatable for all concerned.

All, that is, except for CEA, whose Gary Shapiro is livid: "Forced inclusion of an additional antenna, processor and radio receiver will compromise features that consumers truly desire, such as long battery life and light weight. Reducing product performance, mandating inclusion of features consumers don't want, and replacing product innovation by companies like Amazon, Apple, Motorola and HP-Palm with government design mandates are not in our national interest. Rather than adapt to the digital marketplace, NAB and RIAA act like buggy-whip industries that refuse to innovate and seek to impose penalties on those that do."

NAB's Dennis Wharton of course demurs, calling the proposed FM tuner requirement "a reasonable idea. It's no surprise that CEA opposes this, since trade associations generally always oppose new rules. CEA also opposed DTV tuners in digital television sets; the FCC decided that having DTV tuners in TV sets was a good thing, and passed a rule that gave consumers access to local TV stations on DTV sets. We would argue that having radio capability on cell phones and other mobile devices would be a great thing, particularly from a public safety perspective. There are few if any technologies that match the reliability of broadcast radio in terms of getting lifeline information to the masses."

Some MP3 players, such as the SanDisk Sansa Fuze, already have FM tuners.

See ArsTechnica and TWICE.