[cma-l] radio scrappage scheme

[Bill Best]

Hi

A few points to bear in mind about this:

a) this is not an official Government 'scrappage' scheme - despite how
the media want to dress it up.

b) there is currently no official Government policy for analogue radio
switchover.  The earliest estimated date for any FM switch-off is
2020.

c) the 'radio amnesty' scheme is a short-term marketing exercise that
ends on 26/06 that has been developed by the BBC and the larger
commercial players in the run-up to the World Cup.

d) one advantage of analogue radio is that many households now have
several devices. So it is possible that a significant tranche of
households may participate in the 'radio amnesty' and yet still retain
their ability to listen to analogue radio.

e) it is likely that the 'radio amnesty' scheme will still not appeal
to a substantial number of households for a number of reasons
including "low consumer interest in purchasing DAB radio receivers"
and others reproduced here by Jack Schofield from Grant Goddard's
blog:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/apr/12/dab-radio-problems

f) Jaqui, the CMA Director, is today meeting with the Consumer Expert
Group at DCMS to put forward, again, the case for smaller
broadcasters, retention of analogue spectrum, the needs of listeners
from certain target groups, and other matters relating to community
radio broadcasters.  The 'radio amnesty' scheme will certainly form
part of today's talks with DCMS.

Hope that helps and best regards

Bill
-- 
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On 20 May 2010 10:06, Julian Mellor <julian at 10radio.org> wrote:
> There go the listeners then..... :-(
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8693613.stm
>
> A "radio amnesty" is being launched to encourage listeners to switch from
> analogue to digital radios.
> Participating UK retailers will offer discounts of 10%-20% when people trade
> in their old analogue sets.