Thirteen automakers have made HD Radio available in their vehicles across North America, according to iBiquity Digital.
Ford, Toyota, GMC, Chevrolet, Buick, Jeep, Dodge, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Infiniti, Lincoln, Mitsubishi and Ram now have vehicles at dealerships in the U.S., Canada and Mexico offering the expanded features of HD Radio like Artist Experience and iTunes Tagging.
The Mexican government approved HD Radio as the digital standard for AM and FM in June 2011.
There are 13 stations broadcasting with the technology in Mexico City and 25 additional stations outside of the capital city in other areas of the country. Nearly 30% of the Mexican population has access to an HD Radio broadcast with more broadcasters planning to support the digital rollout in the future, according to the technology developer, which recently opened an office in Mexico City to accelerate the rollout.
Canada is evaluating the digital radio technology; several of Canada’s southern border cities have access to HD Radio broadcasts from the U.S.
IBiquity Digital President/CEO Bob Struble said the company’s automotive and receiver partners “welcome the advances in Canada and have expressed strong support for a unified North American broadcast standard behind HD Radio technology.”
Canadian broadcasters and consumers will benefit from the economies of scale associated with the rollout of HD Radio both here and in Mexico, according to the technology developer. HD Radio aftermarket automotive receivers are available in Canada from Alpine, Clarion, JVC, Kenwood, Pioneer and Sony, as well as home AVR receivers from Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha.
The retail channel will continue to expand as additional stations convert to digital broadcasts, says iBiquity, which adds that these receiver sales reflect the fact that manufacturers want to standardize products for the entire North American market.
We recently reported the launch of HD Radio on Canadian Multicultural Radio on 101.3 MHz in Toronto. CMR is using the technology to address the needs of their diverse multilingual community, with their HD2 in Tamil, HD3 in both Hindi and Urdu and HD4 in Punjabi.
