[cma-l] The Telegraph: Government still won’t commit to digital radio switchover date

Wed Jul 6 09:27:23 BST 2011

Thank you Ian. Another perspective on yesterday's Intellect conference is
here from the irrepressible Grant Goddard:

++++++++++
*
DAB in cars: the straw that will break digital radio switchover's
back<http://grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/dab-in-cars-straw-that-will-break.html>
*

Speaking today at the Intellect conference in London, broadcasting Minister
Ed Vaizey tried to
assure<http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/ministers_speeches/8271.aspx>us
that digital radio switchover was still “on course” to happen in the
year
twenty something or other:

“On cars, the move to include digital radio as standard in new vehicles has
continued over the last year. Around 14% of new vehicles have DAB as
standard, up from 4% a year ago.”

Within hours, this news was misinterpreted by one online news source as
Vaizey having said<http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/the-frontline-blog/2084108/car-industry-key-driving-digital-radio-services>
:

"*Forty *per cent of cars have DAB [Digital Audio Broadcasting] radios as
standard now, up from just four per cent a year ago.”

>From ‘14% of new cars’ to ‘40% of all cars’ in a stroke of a keyboard! No
wonder the article went on to
assert<http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/the-frontline-blog/2084108/car-industry-key-driving-digital-radio-services>that
“the key driver to the take-up of the [DAB] technology looks like it
will come from the car industry as manufacturers start to fit digital radios
as standard.”

How wrong can this statement be? Fewer than 1% of vehicles on the road
currently have a DAB radio. That proportion is not going to increase
quickly, even by 2013 or 2015, as the government wants it to. Rather than
being “the key driver” for DAB radio take-up, cars will become THE major
sticking point for digital radio switchover.

The UK car industry appears to be nearing the end of its tether over the
confused information that has been fed to consumers in recent years about
the so-called DAB ‘switchover’ and FM ‘switch-off’ date(s). This frustration
boiled over at the last government Digital Radio Stakeholders Group meeting
on 17 May 2011, when *Bob Davis*, who heads the Digital Radio
Committee<https://www.smmt.co.uk/members-lounge/sections-committees/digital-radio-committee#>of
the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders [SMMT], stood up to offer
what he referred to as a “naughty” comment:

“Jane [Humphreys, Department for Culture, Media & Sport] said earlier
‘around 2015’ for a digital radio switchover. The automotive industry has
made it very, very clear, since the process began, that it needs certainty.
We’ve got 2013 [as the date for a government decision on switchover] and we
think we’re working towards a 2015 switchover date. With respect, Jane, I
can already see tomorrow’s headlines that DCMS says ‘digital switchover
delayed from 2015’ because you used the phrase ‘around 2015’. That implies a
delay. It may be what potentially happens in the market – it may be 2016, it
might be a bit later than that – but, for the moment, from an automotive
industry perspective, every time there’s a suggestion that 2015 has stopped
being the aspirational date – or might stop being an aspirational date – all
that happens is [that] the automotive industry, or parts of it, is given
another opportunity to say ‘it ain’t going to happen, forget all about it’
and we will end up with the bigger problem of converting vehicles already in
the parc to digital, because people will just say ‘if DCMS can’t give us
certainty’ – and I accept that, at the moment, you can’t – but if DCMS are
saying ‘around 2015’ instead of ‘in 2015’, it reduces the opportunity for
SMMT to keep telling its members there’s a deadline, and it’s ‘this’. So
please could we have a little bit of caution, from an automotive industry
perspective, in (particularly) government references to switchover dates.”

*Jane Humpreys*: “Thank you, Bob, though I think I’m right in saying that
the Minister has never said ‘it will be in 2015’. He too has said that it
will be in terms of … that is the target to which we are working, but what
is the principal objective is that we have to meet the criteria that have
been set out and we have a piece of legislation – unless I’m much mistaken –
that says there will be a minimum of two years’ notice. So….”

*John Mottram*, DCMS: “That’s right. I’m aware of three Daily Mail articles
that suggest it’s seven years, two years, five years’ delay depending upon
the date, so I think in terms of coverage and it being delayed, I think that
delay is already out there. But to Jane’s point, I think the Action Plan and
Ed [Vaizey]’s words make it clear that it’s a consumer-led approach. The
industry target date is 2015 – we’ve never shifted from that – but that
decision is based on the criteria….”

At that point, the meeting was abruptly closed. What had been scheduled to
be merely another ‘tick the government box’ faux consultation meeting had
suddenly started to spin out of control. The natives had started to get
restless. It was time to turn them out onto the street again.

http://grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/dab-in-cars-straw-that-will-break.html

On 5 July 2011 23:23, Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I do wish that people who take it upon themselves to write on technical
> matters in responsible newspapers would at least make an effort to get the
> facts and the terminology somewhere near right.
> "Switchover" applies to TV - not to radio.
> There will not be a radio "switchover" as such according to Ofcom - and
who
> better to know?
> And anyone who uses a phrase like "The FM signal will not be switched off
"
> either does not have a comprehension of the situation or is seriously
> misrepresenting it.
> Also, the terms "digital radio" and "DAB" are used synonymously, which
again
> clearly shows a lack of knowledge.
> Ed Vaizey is equally at fault here - and all "digital radios" do not have
> "FM capability".
> And I'd be very interested to see exactly this "14 per cent of new cars"
now
> having a "DAB radio installed as standard"
> Oh dear - won't they all be annoyed when we're forced to change to
something
> else?
>
> What a load of utterly pointless and fuzzy hot air!
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Ian Hickling
> Partner
> transplan UK
>
>
>> From: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
>> Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 22:36:40 +0100
>> To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
>> Subject: [cma-l] The Telegraph: Government still won’t commit to digital
>> radio switchover date
>>
>> Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor, The Telegraph, 12:38PM BST 05 Jul
2011
>>
>> The Government has refrained from committing to a digital radio
>> switchover date, originally tabled for 2015, saying the decision to
>> move away from FM is still two years away.
>>
>> Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative
>> Industries, has refused to commit to a digital radio switchover date,
>> saying that the decision will not be made until 2013.
>>
>> Talking in London at the annual Intellect technology conference, the
>> event where Vaizey first announced the digital radio switchover action
>> plan a year ago, he said: “We will make the decision [about digital
>> radio switchover] in 2013 whether we will go ahead in 2015 or delay.
>>
>> “I don’t think it [the date] affects the consumer because obviously
>> the consumer is free now to buy digital radios, and also all digital
>> radios have FM capabilities as well.”
>>
>> Digital radio switchover will see all major radio stations transfer
>> away from FM to DAB only. The FM signal will not be switched off but
>> used by smaller stations and community radio groups.
>>
>> Vaizey denied that switchover, which is greatly hampered by the need
>> to have digital radios fitted in all vehicles, both old and new, was
>> behind schedule, but stopped short of committing the Government to
>> pressing ahead with it in 2015, the switchover date set by the Brown
>> administration.
>>
>> “We want to get into the position where we can be certain about the
>> date for switchover. We have said that 2013 is the right time to take
>> that decision to give you [the radio industry] time if you [the radio
>> industry] do go for a 2015 switchover to make that happen.”
>>
>> Currently 26.5 per cent of all radio listening is conducted digitally
>> through mix of the web, DAB and digital TV. However, DAB, which the
>> Government has prioritised as the next generation platform in the
>> Digital Economy Act, only accounts for around 16 per cent of total
>> radio listening.
>>
>> The Government has said that 50 per cent of all listening must be
>> conducted digitally before switchover can begin to happen.
>>
>> James Cridland, senior radio consultant and former BBC Radio digital
>> executive, thinks the Government will have to announce a clear update
>> soon.
>>
>> “I think realistically Ed Vaizey will have to have to come out soon
>> and say that the Government may not hit the 2013 target of getting
>> digital listening to 50 per cent. The question is when does it become
>> politically sensible to admit the industry may fall short of its
>> targets? Digital radio switchover will happen but there is a consensus
>> [among the radio industry] that it’s going to be a real stretch to hit
>> the Government’s deadline.”
>>
>> Experts and radio industry executives think it could take as long as
>> 20 years for full digital radio switchover to occur.
>>
>> Owen Watters, the sales and marketing director of Roberts Radio,
>> issued an attack on the feasibility of the Government’s current
>> digital radio switchover timetable earlier this year.
>>
>> He told The Telegraph: “Digital is no doubt the future of radio and we
>> support this fully and completely, but we still strongly feel, as we
>> have from the beginning, that we should not try to force the issue
>> onto the consumer and that we should look at ways of getting our
>> industry into a ‘digital ready state’, responsibly and honestly,
>> regardless of how long it takes.
>>
>> “We would do well to remember that following the launch of FM, it took
>> over 20 years to become the mainstream format that we know and love
>> today.”
>>
>> Vaizey said that there had been some progress is moving towards the
>> digital radio switchover, with 14 per cent of new cars now having a
>> DAB radio installed as standard.
>>
>> He also praised the BBC and commercial radio sector for having
>> launched Radioplayer, a new web player which offers listeners more
>> than 300 UK radio stations in one place earlier this year. He said
>> that digital only content had been improved by the BBC’s rebranding of
>> Radio 7 to Radio 4 Extra and the addition of new digital only station,
>> such as Absolute 90s.
>>
>> However, he said although the changes represented good progress, the
>> moves were “not yet transformational”.
>>
>> A funding agreement has yet to be reached between the broadcasters and
>> the radio multiplex operators as to how DAB can be built out to the
>> current FM coverage standards. Nor has a timetable for the extended
>> coverage build-out been drawn up.
>>
>> “I think we have achieved a lot against our ambitions for radio but
>> obviously there is still a lot more to do,” Vaizey said.
>>
>> “We are still on course for a decision on switchover in 2013…Hopefully
>> [by then] every radio sold by major retailers will have digital radio
>> capability and the content proposition will continue to improve.”
>>
>> Source: http://is.gd/WWNXEt
>>
>> \\
>>
>> Community Media Association
>> --
>> http://www.commedia.org.uk/
>> http://twitter.com/community_media
>> https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
>> Canstream Internet Radio & Video: http://www.canstream.co.uk/
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