EMPIRE SERVICE COST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21554, 27 July 1933, Page 14

EMPIRE SERVICE COST

South Africa is beginning to take nn interest in the question of who is going to pay for the Empire broadcasting service from Daventry. Hitherto the British listener has " footed the bill," but whether he is prepared to continue supplying free entertainment to his relatives overseas is another matter. Now that the service has become thoroughly well established;, the programmes have improved considerably in Brightness, and all over the civilised globe they form a nightly attraction in countless thousands of homes. On the other hand, it is only fair to point out that every other country of any size supplies a short-wave broadcasting service which is available to world listeners free of charge. There is no doubt in most of the Dominions' that the Daventry service is worthy of a Government subsidy, if .only by reason of the fact that it is binding the Empire more etfectively than any other single feature to-day. British wireless manufacturers could have reaped a rich enough harvest to enable them to support tho Daventry station, just as American radio firms finance short-wave transmitters. Since Daventry began oporating last December 8000 new radio sets have been sold in South Africa alone, mostly of the short-wave variety. Despite repeated warnings, however, practically the wliolo market has been supplied by America, and British manufacturers will have to make a big effort now to capture it.