[cma-l] Community & Local Radio - the Digital Issue

[Two Lochs Radio]

Really James? If digital radio had been led by the market I doubt very much we would be talking about DAB at all (unless you regard the broadcasters rather than the listeners as the market!)

And if it had been technology-led, or even commonsense-led, DCMS would have mandated a rapid migration to DAB+ between 2008 and 2013, before even considering FM switch-offs, rather than letting Ofcom and the BBC plough on into the DAB dead-end.

I think also you have quite a different experience of DAB in an urban area with multiple multiplexes commercially viable. In the vast more remote and rual swatches of the UK, such as here in the north-west, the coverage footpriunt of the BBC's DAB transmitters is significantly less than their FM counterparts in many cases. Although DAB can take advantage of multipath reception, in practice this seems to be outweighed by the poorer overall propagation in Band III. Here in Gairloch, with a powerful main transmitter just a few miles away DAB in too weak to be received except in some favourable patches, not in the main population centres. 

On top of that, being DAB rather than DAB+, the BBC multiplex does not have the capacity to carry its own national channels (Radio Scotland and Radio nan Gaidheal), so it can never achieve FM equivalence on its own, and areas of low population such as this are not attractive to any commercial operators. 

The only answer on the horizon at the moment seems to be for the BBC to pay for carriage on local DAB multiplexes operated by the not-for profit micro-commercials/community stations that are spread across the region. Our local population would then be able to get the local station, and the BBC Scottish services, but not the UK-wide BBC digital services - maybe good for us, but not so good for listener choice!

Alex
Two Lochs Radio
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: James Cridland 
  To: The Community Media Association Discussion List ; cma-l 
  Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2014 9:46 AM
  Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community & Local Radio - the Digital Issue


  When reading this document, remember that the future of digital radio is led by the market, not just by the technology. To blindly recommend systems based on technology-only isn't credible.

  I don't disagree with his technological conclusions. However, there's a lot of market conditions that he's ignored, which makes this paper worthless.

  Its an interesting read, though. Thanks for sharing it.




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