Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio – www.sr.se) is the public service radio broadcaster in Sweden. The company is owned by a foundation and is entirely funded by licence fees. Advertising is not permitted. Swedish Radio is proud of its public service tradition. One of the goals of Swedish Radio is that the programs shall be of interest for a wide audience across the country and made available to listeners in the whole country.
(Programmen skall rikta sig till och vara tillgängliga för publiken i hela landet samt i skälig omfattning tillgodose skiftande behov och intressen hos landets befolkning.)
The purpose of Public Service Radio, as defined by SR themselves is that everyone, independent of sex, age, geographical residence or cultural background should be able to find something of value among SRâ??s programming.
To further fulfil these goals SR has adopted digital technology and the Internet as a mode of infrastructure. It is possible to listen to the radio online and to find and download recent programs, as well as programs from the archives.
Unfortunately SR fallen (inadvertently?) into the trap of using proprietary software. To be able to listen to SRâ??s audio files the user must have Realplayer version 7 (or later) installed on her computer. The user has a choice between using either the free version or buying the program.
However using Realplayer presents the user with something of a dilemma. The first problem arises from the fact that the free version of the software is not entirely easy to find. For those who are unaware that the free version exists the alternative is to purchase the software.
The second problem is that Realplayer has serious integrity issues. They have been sued for privacy violations more than once. For those users who wish to protect their integrity Realplayer is not a viable alternative.
The third problem arises if the user wishes not to support or use proprietary software. Free Software, the alternative approach presented by the Free Software Foundation is an important part of an open technological infrastructure and many who support the need for Free Software alternatives are not able to listen to SRâ??s audio files since they are not available in non-proprietary alternatives.
Audio compression formats based upon non-patented, open source solutions (Such as ogg vorbis – www.vorbis.com) should be the format of choice for large publicly funded radio stations such as Sveriges Radio.
Using such formats Swedish Radio will promote open formats for listening and become part of an open society instead of providing support for a private corporation lock-in.
This post therefore argues:
1. Swedish Radio should not be promoting the product of a single manufacturer.
2. Swedish Radio should not be promoting products which are used to gather data about the user.
3. Swedish Radio should be supporting free and open formats.