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

Wed Jul 6 21:52:33 BST 2011

Ian

The driver is government support for British industry, both manufacturers and the big commercial radio groups who want to be able to force the BBC onto DAB only to "level the playing field" so that, say, BBC R2 is seen as equal to Heart or Capital or Smooth in terms of all being national radio stations.  We actually do also have a number of manufacturers of radio equipment including consumer radio sets and this means there is a new market for them to fill with DAB radios. And,, if they had got in first with something that other countries adopted too then these manufacturers could have been first into those new markets leading to more jobs for British workers etc....Over the last year or so the emphasis has been on getting DAB radios into vehicles. But this is difficult because car manufacturers have a five year development cycle and modern cars no longer have "radios" at all, instead an electronic dashboard which incorporates everything from traditional speed and petrol indicators etc to sat-navs and "audio" systems - and, increasingly, Internet access.

It all worked with European standards being set for mobile phones which were then adopted worldwide and it was an EU project that invented the MP3 standard. But DAB is old 1980s technology and now well past its sell-by date. It has been dropped in a number of countries (eg Germany) in favour of DAB+ (better but not much) and others have started from DAB+ (eg Australia).

I suggested to the chief civil servant responsible for this policy that they had a golden opportunity to drop it after the General Election and blame the mess on "the previous lot" but incredibly they have decided to continue on the road to disaster. Dropping DAB would mean admitting that sack loads of BBC licence payers' money and commercial radio shareholders' money had been poured down the drain and they could have blamed it on the previous government but incredibly they still prefer to throw more good money after bad. Changing  to DAB+ would render 7 million out of the 10 million existing DAB radio sets redundant and so upset the people who bought them thinking they were buying into the future of radio - and even hinting such a change might be made one day would mean existing DAB radio sales would nosedive (although many newer models can secretly receive DAB+ as well). 

It is a government policy nightmare but the only possible outcome is an eventual abandonment of DAB whether officially announced or, more likely, by a long and lingering death. I have noted that many more "digital" radios now include Internet access as well as DAB, DAB+ and FM. Interestingly the marketing people have proposed having a "digital kitemark" to help confused customers but their idea was that it would only be for DAB/DAB+ radios and not for those that also included Internet (although, to be fair, when I asked the question of them again recently they weren't sure about this now). The "point of sale" displays in major retailers like John Lewis, Currys or Marks & Spencer are all confused about this and often display a mix of DAB and Internet radios all labelled "digital". And, as I have pointed out previously, the marketing people want to promote "digital" radios but also to convince consumers that "digital" means DAB. So they are cutting off their own legs!

I have despaired of all this for several years now and every few months torture myself by sitting in on the "Stakeholders" group in which I was mysteriously invited to participate. Each time representatives of government and industry stand up and make their increasingly unbelievable statements about the bright future for DAB and then afterwards, individually, admit they are as sceptical as I am!  It will all end in tears and I think all Community Radio stations should be glad we haven't got sucked into it all or wasted any of our precious funds on it...

Clive Glover

On 6 Jul 2011, at 20:38, Ian Hickling wrote:

> Clive
> It's refreshing to know that there is some form of logic in all this - thank you!
> So are you laying the majority of the blame on "the civil servants and the industry representatives  who will not accept that radio is different"?
> So is the problem essentially within the Industry?
> Therefore it's surely our responsibility to acquaint these apparent decision-makers with the facts.
> I'll happily do this by a written question to the S of S for the DCMS through my MP and I suggest that as many other of us who understand - and care - do the same.
> 
> ------------------------------------
> Ian Hickling
> Partner
> transplan UK
> 
> 
>   
> From: clive.glover at lineone.net
> Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 18:08:29 +0100
> To: ian at transplan.uk.com
> CC: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [cma-l] The Telegraph: Government still won’t commit to digital radio switchover date
> 
> Ian
> 
> Both Jaqui and I have repeatedly made exactly these points at the quarterly "Digital Radio Stakeholders" meetings in London organised by government departments. A major problem is that the civil servants involved - and many of the industry representatives - were previously involved in the TV switchover planning and will NOT accept that radio is different.
> 
> So the newspapers are simply repeating what they are being told by government representatives and the minister is saying what his officials tell him.
> 
> The marketing people are using "switchover" specifically to scare people into buying a new "digital" radio because their "old" FM ones won't work after 2015 and the term "digital" is being applied to all digital forms of radio & audio because the chosen form of DAB is simply not selling well and is now actually in decline year on year so will never get to 50% of listening (note NOT of listeners) to trigger "switchover". The fastest growing form of "digital" listening by far is Internet streaming so all of us online and going onto the RadioPlayer are actually already on the most likely to be successful "digital" platform.
> 
> Clive Glover
> 
> Radio Verulam, St Albans
> 
> 
> On 5 Jul 2011, at 23:23, Ian Hickling 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
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