[cma-l] Digital radio: It's a migration not a switch-off, stupid!

[Cathy Aitchison]

Digital Radio
Interesting item and follow-up on the Today programme regarding the 
claim by the Chief Executive of Digital Radio UK, Ford Ennals, that 40% 
of the audience is listening on digital.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9222000/9222914.stm

I offer the post below in response
Cathy Aitchison
http://talkingmedia.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/its-a-migration-not-a-switch-off-stupid/

Digital radio: It's a migration not a switch-off, stupid
How important is it that the debate on digital radio always includes the 
phrase 'switch off'? Does it matter that the plan is in fact for a 
migration to digital, leaving the analogue spectrum (or whatever it's 
called) to community radio and other small players?

Yes, I think it does matter, for two main reasons.

Firstly, it's a subversive coersion tactic: if you publicise loudly and 
often enough that there's going to be a 'switch-off', eventually people 
fall in line, as they are doing with the (correctly named) switch-off of 
analogue television. Make them nervous of what is going to happen and 
steer them in the direction you want them to follow. I would bet that 
it's no accident that the radio industry uses the term 'switch-off', 
especially in the run-up to Christmas, with the prospect of all those 
nice DAB radios finding their way into people's home as gifts. Again, 
make people nervous of what is going to happen and steer them in the 
direction you want them to follow. In this case, that's onto the DAB 
system, which has been discussed endlessly elsewhere as to whether or 
not it's the right system.

Secondly, there has been a worrying lack of discussion around how the 
freed-up analogue spectrum will be used, allocated and policed. With all 
the mainstream players shunted (sometimes against their will) onto DAB, 
will community radio really have full use of the analogue spectrum? Or 
will we be faced with the bizarre situation of 'pirates' from the 
mainstream? What if, purely hypothetically, BBC Radio 4 decided that it 
couldn't give up its FM slot but would continue to use it, eg. just for 
the Today programme in the mornings, in addition to digital? Would they 
get the same treatment as a black music station illegally broadcasting 
from a housing estate rooftop, with confiscation of equipment and being 
banned from holding a licence for a number of years? The mind boggles.

The 'switch-off' angle is more compelling if you want to get people to 
take action by buying new equipment. But I would have thought a 'freeing 
up analogue for you' would have been equally good, if the opportunities 
for small local radio stations really were going to increase with the 
migration.

But I doubt whether they are.

My fear is that there will be little in the way of support for the 
small-scale community alternatives on post-migration analogue, either 
financially or by way of endorsement from government or regulators. 
Instead, the 'switch-off' angle will become so ingrained that, when it 
happens, the sector on analogue will not be strong enough to fill the 
dial sustainably - so the government or its advisors will then say 'It 
hasn't worked. Look at all that under-used analogue spectrum, let's now 
sell it off'. When history came to be written, the fact that it was 
never intended to be a switch-off would be conveniently forgotten, 
airbrushing out the middle stage of analogue for community radio.

By the way, my choice of the Today programme above is of course 
tongue-in-cheek, but also deliberate as an example here: this morning 
the otherwise excellent item from Tom Bateman (debunking some 
exaggerated listening figures for digital) unfortunately also contained 
the SWITCH-OFF error: click here to listen and judge for yourself:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9222000/9222914.stm
Eight out of ten, Today, because you moved so fast to counteract an 
extraordinary abuse of statistics (the speed doubtless helped by a 
deluge of emails and tweets from listeners who can spot a hype a mile 
off). What was that I said earlier about Today on FM? Maybe not so 
far-fetched after all...
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/pipermail/cma-l/attachments/20101124/60d03f47/attachment.html>