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

[Two Lochs Radio]

Apologies if you get this twice, but I think I sent it only to Clive first time around...

A worthwhile persepctive, Clive, thanks.

I too tried suggesting to the incoming Secretary of State that now was the time to bite the bullet and get the digital radio train back on the rails without loss of political face. It was a golden opportunity to right the wrong of what has to be one of the BBC and Ofcom's poorest strategic decisions of all time - that of ploughing ahead full steam with DAB when every clear thinking person could see the coming quagmire, with only a pair of buffers on the far side!

Where I would diverge from your reasoning a little is on the question of DAB+. There was (and still is) no need to disenfranchise DAB receiver owners by introducing DAB. At the time (and still to some extent now) there was a large swathe of the UK in the Highlands and Islands with no DAB coverage whatever, and consequently no significant installed base of DAB receivers at all (and of course almost none incars, even those of visitors).

At the same time, this region has 6 national BBC channels and numerous 'ILR' stations - far too many for the planned DAB multiplexes to cope with - even the BBC can carry only 4 of its 6 national channels on DAB outside the major connurbations (in those areas it rents extra capacity from commercial MUXes). 

DAB+ could have solved these capacity problems at a stroke with no creation of redundant sets, since all those newly bought in the region could be DAB+ capable, and all DAB car radios are DAB+ as well. It would also have provided invaluable field experience of using the system in challenging terrain which would benefit the UK as a whole. In the fullness of time DAB+ migration could then take place across the UK as the old rump of DAB-only sets became a small minority.

There need be no problem in overlapping border regions or a gradual migration across the UK either - DAB and DAB+ are quite capable of operating in the same region if planned for correctly.

I see Ofcom has been asked to chair a review of DAB coverage planning standards and options for getting to the point of matching coverage for FM (although it proposes to achieve this partly by lowering its standards for minimum quality of DAB signal). 

Incidentally, it's not just uninformed parlimentarians or journalists who appear to believe digital *switchover* is the term to use for what is planned. Ofcom's own summary of its new brief to work on DAB coverage planning says the purpose of the Digital Radio Actio Plan is "'to provide the information to allow for a well-informed decision by Government on whether to proceed with a radio switchover'.", and that part of its work will be "A study investigating the feasibility of different radio switchover scenarios ..." There's that s-word again, Ian! I guess they really are referring only to switchover of BBC and national ILR stations.

The question I haven't been able to get answered is will it be looking at coverage just in terms of there being some DAB coverage across the same footprint as present FM, or in terms of fully equivalent coverage - ie in an area such as ours, would provision of BBC R1-4 on DAB be regarded as equivalent coverage when our present FM coverage also includes the other two national BBC channels, BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio nan Gaidheal? At present the BBC has no plans to provide the latter two on DAB here unless a commercial multiplex operator also decides to set up shop (oh, I see a pig passing our aerials!).

Alex
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Clive Glover 
  To: ian at transplan.uk.com 
  Cc: cma-l 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 9:52 PM
  Subject: Re: [cma-l] The Telegraph: Government still won’t commit to digital radio switchover date


  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.
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