The Press FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1934. What the Radio License Figures Mean

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21179, 1 June 1934, Page 10

The Press FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1934. What the Radio License Figures Mean

The Postmaster-General, it is reported this morning, announces that the number of radio licenses renewed on April 1 was 100,000,. this being 99 per cent, of the number previously in force; while at this date last year only 86 per cent, of the previous year's license-holders had renewed. The message appends to these figures the comments of the general manager of the Radio, Broadcasting Board, Mr E. C. Hands, j who finds them " most gratifying " and declares that they "cannot be " interpreted as meaning anything " else but satisfaction with the " board's policy." Nothing so much conduces to an agreeable existence as the ability to be pleased with little and to see none but happy omens. Mr Hands is to be congratulated. But since the broadcasting service is a public affair, and its end is the satisfaction of many rather than of one, it is necessary to say that Mr Hands, except in one particular, is mistaken. Everybody will agree with him that the punctual alacrity of taxpayers is " gratifying," and that their greater alacrity in 1934 than in 1933 is even " most gratifying." It does at least mean that the revenue rolis in fast and that the licensees want to go on using their sets. But there agreement with Mr Hands abruptly ceases. The facts do not by any means necessarily signify that all the licensees, or even most of them or many of them, are "satisfied with "the board's policy" or—to be less grand but more precise—with what the board gives them, from which to deduce its " policy " is a hard and humiliating exercise. Listeners can, and do, amuse and instruct themselves very well by ignoring the board's programmes, plums apart, and linking themselves up with Australian stations and with others still more remote. How many listeners renew their licenses wholly or largely for the sake of the oversea stations and would let them lapse, or be sorely tempted to, if they had no other inducement than the board's "policy" and its results—this cannot easily be learned; but "r Hands is in error if he thinks the number negligible and ludicrously in error when he sweeps up the new figures and presents them as :i bouquet to the board. The figures will stand examination from another point of view, and from that they are not in the least gratifying. According to the Year Book, the licenses in force at March 31, 1933, totalled 95,549. From the Postmaster-General's figures it is easy to calculate that the number in force at March 31, 1934, was about 101,000. We set out below the license figures for Great Britain and for New Zealand for the last eight years:

What is most noticeable here and most disturbing is that since 1932, while the Esglish total has advanced by more than 30 per cent., the New Zealand total has gained by less than 10 per cent. Other interesting comparisons may be made; for instance, of the increases between 1931 and 1934, the English rate being about twice as fast as the New Zealand. As for saturation, it is obvious that Great Britain has advanced to the issue of one license for every seven or eight persons, while New Zealand has not yet one for every 16. It is true that broadcastinr in New Zealand is yet in its infancy; but it can gratify only Mr Hands to see the infant still crawling.

Great NewBritain. Zealand. 1927 2,307,000 18,162 1928 2,519,000 39.315 1929 2,792,000 44,810 1930 3,159,000 53,407 1931 3,780,000 74,980 1932 4,731,663 93,489 1933 5.561,818 95,549 1934 61254,000 101,000