[cma-l] The BBC to fund DAB coverage up to 97%.

Tue Oct 25 13:41:39 BST 2011

There is a real danger of CR being left in the analogue dark ages if we
don't have a plan for digital. 

There's surly a strong case for establishing a dialogue with the BBC and
commercial companies to ensure where possible FM licenced stations have a
route to digital?

Alan

Alan Coote

Business Development Director 

The Bay Radio

Office 01202 580200

Studio 01202 571028

Mobile 07801 518858

Email alan.coote at thebayradio.com

Web www.thebayradio.com <http://www.thebayradio.com/> 

The Bay Radio, 25B Elliott Road, Bournemouth, BH11 8LQ

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From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Ian Hickling
Sent: 24 October 2011 11:30 AM
To: clive.glover at lineone.net
Cc: cma-l
Subject: [cma-l] The BBC to fund DAB coverage up to 97%.

Clive.
Agreed!
See my posting just before I read this one.

------------------------------------

Ian Hickling
Partner

transplan UK

  _____  

Subject: Re: The BBC to fund DAB coverage up to 97%.
From: clive.glover at lineone.net
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:04:34 +0100
CC: tlr at gairloch.co.uk; cma-l at commedia.org.uk
To: ian at transplan.uk.com

Ian 

At the Digital Radio meetings which I have attended (along with Jaqui and
others) we have tried to get the Government and industry people to make
clear in their publicity etc what exactly they mean by "digital" but they
have always insisted on deliberately conflating all forms of digital radio
(by satellite, by cable, by FreeView as well as DAB) as "digital". However
when I very specifically asked the marketing people about their plans to
create a digital "tick" campaign to show which radios in the shops were
"digital" they first told me that these would only be DAB ones, thus
specifically excluding those (increasingly common) which also include
"Internet radio" (i.e. streaming). The next meeting they contradicted that
but I suspect the plan is still to try to sell obsolete DAB sets as
"digital" in line with the advertising campaigns to promote "digital radios"
(which always show Pure sets, even on the BBC!).

The RadioPlayer people have made little secret of their plans to create a RP
app for iPhones and Android, plus probably a version for FreeView, Sky &
FreeSat and - perhaps - a version for portable radios. Internet streaming is
already well on its way to becoming the main "digital radio" format in
practice even though purists will of course point out it is not a
broadcasting technology, but  a communications technology (just like Sky TV
in the early days and look what has happened to that!).

One day - perhaps - someone in Whitehall will realise they are heading down
a cul de sac  with a large brick wall at the end.....

Clive Glover

On 21 Oct 2011, at 18:00, Ian Hickling wrote:

I didn't see the original announcement.
So - does this mean that the BBC and presumably H M Government still pushing
the ancient Eureka 147 format - which is effectively extinct except for the
UK?
Or is the term "DAB" used here meant to be a synonym for "Digital Radio"?
I think we need to have this clarified.

------------------------------------

Ian Hickling
Partner

transplan UK

  _____  

From: tlr at gairloch.co.uk
To: clive.glover at lineone.net
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:23:11 +0100
CC: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] The BBC will fund taking DAB up to 97% coverage

Exactly Clive.

I note that the no doubt very carefully worded BBC statement says "national
DAB coverage". This almost certainly deliberately excludes rolling out the
"local" DAB coverage which the commercial companies are also refusing to
fund.

So there is another subtle shift in policy here - the "switchover" (as they
still insist on calling it down in Whitehall) will now be triggered when
digital listening on national services reaches the appropriate limit. 

What's more, here in Scotland not having a commercial multiplex means also
not having all the BBC National services.

In areas with no commercial multiplex we get no BBC Radio Scotland on DAB
(really!) nor BBC Radio nan Gaidheal (the national Gaelic service). This is
because the single BBC DAB multiplex is already stretched to the max
capacity/min quality limits to carry the England-based services.

In highly populous areas, such as Edinburgh and Glasgow, the BBC gets round
the problem by renting extra capacity for these services on commercial
multiplexes, but of course it can't do that anywhere in the north/northwes
of the UK where there are no commercial multiplexes.

It also means we don't get the regional news opt-outs from the national
Radio Scotland service that we currently get at peak times on FM.

They could have sorted all this by using the northwest as a pilot area for
DAB+.

Alex

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