[cma-l] Go Digital: full text of speech by Ed Vaizey

[Andy King]

Dear all,

For information, please find below the full text of the speech made by
Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Ed Vaizey at
yesterday's Go Digital event at the BBC Radio Theatre.

More news coverage of this event can be found at (among other sites) Radio
Today:
http://radiotoday.co.uk/2013/12/no-switchover-date-for-dab-vaizey-says/

==========================

“It is a real privilege to be here today and I want to start by thanking
the BBC for hosting today’s conference and DRUK for organising this event.

The radio industry is in the midst of probably its greatest ever period of
change – certainly the greatest change since the birth of commercial radio.

The shift to digital is growing steadily year on year. Listeners have the
widest range of choice – DAB, on TV, internet moderated by increasingly
sophisticated sites and by smart phones opening up new audiences.

In 2010 we inherited from the previous Government an ambitious goal to
switchover to digital.

We supported that ambition. And we established the Digital Radio Action
Plan to inject momentum, and encourage the industry to work together to try
and achieve that goal.

I am grateful to the broadcasters and other key stakeholders from industry
and consumer groups – many of whom are in the audience today – for the
support given to the Action Plan programme over the past 3 years.

We have achieved a huge amount.

*There has been a massive increase in coverage*
The BBC’s national DAB network now reaches 94% of homes, up from 85% in
2010.

The commercial national DAB network (Digital One) coverage is now at 89%,
including launching in Northern Ireland in July this year, up from 84.5% in
2010

And local DAB coverage has increased from 66% in 2010 to more than 72% of
households.

We have launched eight local multiplexes in the past 18 months alone. A
ninth, in Surrey, was launched on Thursday alongside Eagle 3 the newest
digital only radio station.

There has been a huge growth in the number of digital radio stations.
Back in 2009, there were only 4 national commercial digital stations in the
UK. Now there are 14. This proliferation in stations means that the
national commercial digital multiplex (Digital One) is now full.

In most of the UK listeners can now receive more than 20 additional
digital-only national and local stations on DAB.

*More people are listening to digital radio than ever before*
Digital’s share of listening now at 35.6%, up from 21.1% in 2009; In the
last 3 years, total hours of listening to the BBC’s national digital-only
stations has more than doubled.

BBC 6 Music is now the number one BBC digital-only station with over 1.7
million listeners a week.

Radio 4 Extra now has 50% more listeners since its rebrand from BBC Radio 7.

Since its launch at the end of 2009, Absolute 80s has gone from strength to
strength. It is now the number one commercial digital-only station, with
over 1.2 million weekly listeners.

UK Radioplayer, a ground-breaking partnership between the BBC and
commercial radio, now has around 7m unique users a month.

Radio is increasingly visible on smartphones and connected devices, with
stations offering their own customised apps.

*The number of digital radios has hugely increased*
Sales of DAB radios have held up during the recession and against a fall in
sales of other consumer electronics with sales steady at around 2 million
units per year – 45% of people now live in homes with a DAB radio. Analogue
radio sales are now half of what they were in 2010

And crucially, there has been tremendous progress in another key area. Car
manufacturers offering more of their customers an upgrade to digital –
41.6% of new cars sold in October had DAB radios fitted as standard, up
from just 4.4% in 2010.

So today, I want to celebrate success and to spur everyone on for more.

Because while it’s clear we’ve come a long way since 2010, there is still
more to do before the transition to digital can be completed.

I have always said that the radio listener will lead the transition to
digital.

We set ourselves a series of benchmarks.

Listening should be at 50%.
Coverage needs to be built out towards FM equivalence – with coverage
matching FM in place for all stations that need to switchover.
Shifting new cars to digital and migrating more in car listening
We are not there yet. So now is not the time to switchover.

But it is time to embark on the next phase of our plans to ensure Radio has
a strong digital future.

As always, the crucial benchmarks are coverage, content, cars and consumers
– the 4 C’s.

*On Coverage*
We know that where DAB coverage is better and listeners have the choice of
listening to digital, digital’s share of listening tends to be much higher
– for example in London digital’s share of listening is now around 44%.
It’s important we maintain the momentum in increasing coverage.

I was delighted that the BBC announced in October that it will extend the
coverage of its national DAB multiplex from just over 94% today to 97.3% by
the end of 2015.

Arqiva will extend the national commercial mux to match the coverage of
classic FM by 2016.

In the next phase, the BBC, Commercial radio and the Government will
together fund the build out of the local DAB tier to near commercial FM
equivalence by 2016

This new roll out phase will give around 4m households access to local
commercial and BBC services on digital by 2016.

It will also mean substantially better coverage on roads, which supports
drivers and car manufacturers.

And to help underwrite that long-term investment in local DAB by commercial
radio, we intend to use the powers in the Digital Economy Act to allow
Ofcom to extend the term of local multiplex licences that will expire in
the period up to 2026. We will also enable Ofcom to extend licences terms –
where services are built out under the agreement reached with commercial
radio – to a common 2030 date.

*On Content*
We all know how much people love their small local commercial and community
radio stations.

That is why we have always said that we will reserve a part of the FM
spectrum for as long as it is needed for those stations that are too small
to make the switch to digital. This remains the case.

We will also be consulting shortly on how we can improve the viability of
the community radio sector by removing some of the complex and restrictive
financing regulations currently in place.

But wouldn’t it also be great if people could also get this local content
on digital?

I have for some time wanted to see progress on new solutions for small
stations to have a route to DAB which meets their needs. I can announce
today that we will be providing new funding to Ofcom over the next two
years to build on the work of its Brighton pilot to develop small-scale DAB
solutions, to allow smaller radio stations to go digital.

But very local content is not the whole part of the picture; we also want
people to be able to choose from the widest choice of national commercial
radio stations, like Classic FM.

But that isn’t possible at the moment, because our current national
commercial multiplex [Digital One] is full.

To address that, I can announce today that early next year Ofcom will offer
the licence to build and run a second national commercial multiplex (D2).

Finally, whether it’s local or national radio, it’s the content that
connects with listeners. And over the past few years, listeners have seen
the availability of different types of music increase dramatically from a
wide variety of sources, including the internet and digital radio.

So I can also announce today that Ofcom will undertake a review of music
formats next year to see if these can be relaxed to give industry greater
freedom to adapt to changing consumer tastes and to ensure competition. We
are also committing, alongside Ofcom, to look more closely at other rules
and regulations that exist around radio, to ensure they are fit for purpose
in a digital age.

*On Cars*
As you all know, one of the more intractable problems with the development
of digital radio has been in-vehicle conversions.

Since 2010, a great deal of progress has been made with new cars and I
would like to offer my thanks and recognition for the way car manufacturers
have embraced digital radio and in particular to the Society of Motor
Manufactures and Traders for the help and support to the radio industry
over the past three years

More than four in ten new cars now have DAB fitted as standard – meaning
that almost a million [845k in the 12 months to October] new vehicles have
been sold with digital radio in the last year alone.
All of this puts us on target for a majority of new cars to be sold with
digital radio as standard by the end of this year – a really fantastic
achievement.

But a large number of vehicles already on the road still need to be
converted to digital radio.

As Part of the Action Plan, a cross industry group, with representatives
from the radio sector and motor industry, looked at the key issues.

One of the Group’s key recommendations is to make sure that motorists know
about the options available to them to convert to Digital.

So today I am delighted to announce that colleagues at the Department for
Transport have agreed that Digital Radio UK will be able to work in
partnership with the DLVA [car tax] and the Driver Vehicle and Standards
Agency, [which now incorporates VOSA (who are responsible MOTs and MOT
centres)], to use their communication channels with motorists from next
year to let motorists know how they can upgrade their listening experience
to digital

I am also pleased to note that Digital Radio UK, the Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and industry are working together to take
forward other recommendations made in the Action Plan report on vehicle
conversion coming.

All of this is great news for Consumers:

More choice.
More coverage.
More opportunities to upgrade to digital.
New ways to engage.
But to really give consumers confidence, we need them to be sure the radio
they buy is right for them.

For that reason, I welcome the news today that Digital Radio UK will be
speaking to industry about taking forward the Digital Certification Mark
scheme – building on work done as part of the Digital Radio Action Plan.
This will signpost consumers to digital radios that meet a minimum
specification – giving them greater assurance on the product they are
buying.

Digital Radio UK is also speaking to industry about extending this scheme
to in car digital radio installers– so that if you take the decision to
upgrade your car to digital, you know that the person responsible for
installing it knows what they’re doing.

Both schemes will help support consumers who want to switch to digital to
take advantage of the increased choice of services.

*Conclusion*
There has been much good progress in the past 3 years.

If you compare where we were on the journey towards digital television, we
are today in roughly the same place with digital radio.

However, you all know that radio is very different from television and that
the process of a major transition for radio needs to be carried out over a
different timescale and in a way which reflects the needs of those who love
radio.

Nonetheless, I absolutely believe that the future of radio in this country
is digital. We cannot go backwards.

The radio listener will get a much better service, and better functionality.

There will be far more choice, with many more stations.

The radio sector will be able to do more and be able to reinvent itself in
the years to come

And as the country returns to growth, we should be mindful of the economic
opportunity as well.

More than 50% of digital radios on the world market are made by British
companies – Pure, Roberts, Revo and others – with UK technology in nearly
80% of digital radios.

Digital radio is beginning to make real headway elsewhere. Norway and
Denmark have made commitments to a future switchover.

Germany is underway and France is getting on board– and where Germany leads
the rest of Europe will not be too far behind.

The UK is at the forefront of developments in digital radio, and we have a
huge opportunity not just with the UK market but also throughout Europe.

Today’s package of measures is intended to cement this and herald in a
digital age, as and when the consumer is ready.

Thank you.”

==========================

Best regards
Andy King

-- 
Andy King
Technical Assistant
Community Media Association
http://www.commedia.org.uk/
0114 279 5219

Canstream Internet Radio & Video
http://www.canstream.co.uk/
http://twitter.com/canstream
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