[cma-l] The Future of FM in the UK

Sun Apr 4 09:44:13 BST 2010

Alan

I have to strongly disagree with you, both from personal involvement and from reading and listening to what comes from HMG, Ofcom, from the Industry as a whole and from the CMA.

The Press has got hold of these terms "digital switchover" and "analogue switchoff" which are both, typically, nonense in a true technological sense.

I won't bore you all again with the reasoning.

The important points are that HMG has said that small local and community stations will remain on FM because the present administrative structure makes it financially impossible to migrate to "digital" and the widespread feeling in the Industry is that DAB as the existing delivery platform with the spectrum currently in use simply isn't broad or comprehensive enough to take them all on and leave enough bitrate for every station to sound acceptable to the listener.

Added to that, there is no potential commercial demand or usage for the 20 MHz of spectrum which would be released and it would leave the UK in a position of having abandoned a platform which all other developed countries will still be using.

So - FM will not be "swtched off" and there will be no "digital swichover".

Major broadcasters will, at some time in the distant future and over many months, experience a "migration to digital", but to what format no-one knows at the moment despite lots of us putting forward our hopes - and fears!

Ian Hickling

Partner

transplan UK

> From: alan.coote at btinternet.com
> To: jaqui.devereux at commedia.org.uk
> Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 01:29:16 +0100
> CC: cma-l at commedia.org.uk; comradio-l at commedia.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [cma-l] Future of FM in the UK
> 
> I have to mainly agree with Alex. The plan is to ultimately cease
> broadcasting on FM in the UK - this is digital switchover. It may take
> longer than the current planned, but it will happen. 
> 
> The only recourse for community stations and minor commercial outfits is to
> ensure they have a digital future. Clearly this cannot be DAB given the
> current extortionate carriage charges. It's also misleading to believe that
> there would be enough capacity on DAB or DAB+ for community stations in many
> areas of the country, even if cost wasn't an issue. 
> 
> Currently, the only digital technology platform looking applicable to
> community radio is DRM+. This would allow potentially 100s of near CD
> quality stations on the air even within a populated FM band. 
> 
> Governments in this country tend to leave capital projects to the market,
> but one can't help thinking that the digital switchover debate would be null
> and void if transmission equipment, such as DRM+ was at least partially
> funded by government, or dare I say, a proportion of the BBC licence fee.
> 
> 
> Alan
> 
> Alan Coote
> Managing Director 
> The Bay Radio
> Office 01202 580200
> Studio 01202 571028
> Mobile 07801 518858
> 
> Email alan.coote at thebayradio.com
> Web www.thebayradio.com      
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
> [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Two Lochs Radio
> Sent: 29 March 2010 2:52 PM
> To: jaqui.devereux at commedia.org.uk
> Cc: cma-l; comradio-l at commedia.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [cma-l] Future of FM in the UK
> 
> <<There are NO plans for the cessation of FM broadcasting in the UK!!>>
> 
> That's a rather a misleading way to put it, isn't it? There *are* plans to 
> cease FM broadcasting for the majority of current large FM stations, which 
> is by definition the majority of current FM listening - the Digital Economy 
> Bill radio clauses are specifically to provide a framework for this to 
> happen. And the Bill contains *no* criteria of the sort you suggest.
> 
> Of course that is not to say there will be no services left on FM, but if, 
> for example, you are a Radio 2 or Radio 4 or Capital FM listener, then as 
> far as you are concerned, there is most definitely a plan for cessation of 
> FM service. On the other hand if you're a Celtic Music Radio Glasgow 
> listener, there is not.
> 
> <<The Guardian does have an interest through GMG in talking about
> "switchover" but the language really should be "migration" of the
> national and large regional channels to digital>>
> 
> I agree 'migration' is a much more appropriate term for the plans. GMG's 
> interest is in more than just 'large regional' , but be fair to the 
> Guardian, most of the article wasn't their words - they were largely quoting
> 
> a Lords Committee report, and all credit to them for reporting it at all.
> 
> The migration criteria you listed, would be wide open to manipulation, but 
> in any case they are *not* part of the Digital Economy Bill - they have no 
> legal force and will be ignored to a greater or lesser extent. Many people 
> have been misled into thinking that they are a legal requirement, but they 
> are not. They were recommended in the final Digital Britain report but did 
> not make it into the Bill.
> 
> Digital Radio UK (the promotional body for Digital Radio migration) says 
> “The Government has stated that switchover will not happen until the 
> majority of radio listening is to digital, and until anyone who can 
> currently receive FM is able to receive digital radio”.
> 
> Think about that phrase "is able to receive digital radio". That's totally 
> different from saying the coverage of the two must be identical. If I were 
> in Fort William, I would be 'able to receive digital radio'. but I could not
> 
> use it to listen to BBC Radio Scotland or Nevis Radio.
> 
> The RadioCentre (the ILR trade association, from which a large number of 
> radio stations have deserted in protest at its prodigital stance) says 
> “RadioCentre does not believe it is appropriate for the industry to be tied 
> to any figures in primary legislation. This is a very inflexible mechanism 
> against which to manage our industry going forwards”. In other words "we 
> want to be able to move the goalposts more easily than that".
> 
> If the mooted criteria were rigorously apply to the letter, then there would
> 
> never be a migration in the forseeable future since some aspects of the 
> above are not feasible (eg no dropout in any valleys), so we have to assume 
> they are intended to be applied a bit more pragmatically, in which case the 
> floodgates are open for manipulation.
> 
> "50% listening via digital devices" presumably includes computers, TVs etc, 
> not just radio sets, so the threshold may be more easily achieved than one 
> might think. It is also wide open to what qualifies as listening and what 
> does not (eg is it weekly reach, devices present int he household, or 
> what?). Is listening to FM radio on a digital cellphone 'listening via a 
> digital device'?
> 
> "that digital coverage is equivalent to the BBC's current FM reach" - just 
> what does "equivalent" mean? Could be a wide range of things. For example, 
> in our area, does it mean that all the same channels must be available over 
> the same area, or does it mean that a national BBC multiplex must be present
> 
> wherever there is currently BBC national FM coverage? On present plans 
> mathcing reach cannot be achieved here because there is no 'reach' on DAB in
> 
> the north-west for Radio Scotland or Radio nan Gaidheal.
> 
> But in any event, the criteria simply are *NOT* specified as requirements in
> 
> the Digital economy Bill which provides the legal framework for digital 
> migration and in clause 30 makes provision forthe Secretary of State to set 
> a changeover date if he wants, but does not actually madate it.
> 
> Going back to the comment from Ian that started this thread, he is quite 
> right that as far as community radio is concerned, there is no plan for 
> digital switchover. But that's as far as it goes. There *is* a plan for 
> digital switchover for the vast majority of current FM listening, and there 
> are no meaningful legal criteria for when it can happen other than when the 
> Secretary of State deems the time to be right.
> 
> Alex 
> 
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