DAB switchover: Westminster eForum on the Future of Radio
We're taking part in the Westminster eForum on the Future of Radio today, and the debate about the switchover to DAB is hotting up. Here are the highlights:
• Andrew Harrison, CEO of RadioCentre, says speculation about the future of digital radio is totally fanciful while DAB coverage is non-existent in some areas
• More than twice as many UK households have a broadband connection than a DAB radio
• Five people have spoken so far, and not one yet is pro-DAB. We hope the Government attendees are listening
• It's all kicking off now at the Digital Radio conference – DAB manufacturers are fighting back against the naysayers. Stats are flying
• Rather disturbingly, no-one seems to have definitive figures on DAB uptake/use
• Meanwhile, in the Commons MPs are debating killing off BBC local radio
• Don Foster MP says: "I am unremittingly excited and optimistic about digital radio, and can't wait for a switchover date"
• Ford Ennals, chief executive of Digital Radio UK: "DAB coverage isn't good enough and needs to be improved as a priority."
• Just seen a sneaky slide from Digital Radio UK saying 84% of DAB listeners prefer its sound quality to analogue (small text: AM/MW, not FM)
• Ford Ennals is speaking now, Q&A to follow, plus a larger discussion on who's going to pay for digital switchover
• Paul Eaton, director of radio at Arqiva, says: "DAB will cost no more than analogue and 25% fewer transmitters will provide greater coverage"
* The analogue radio networks are full, so if we're going to go anywhere, it's got to be digital. Worst scenario is paying for both, according to Arqiva
• Travis Baxter, Bauer Media: "Massive public funding is needed or the Government's policy objective of digital radio switchover will fail"
• There's now a steady stream of commercial broadcasters unsurprisingly arguing for huge public investment to enable digital radio switchover
• Mark Friend, BBC: "We will have 93% DAB coverage by the end of 2011, including all motorways and A roads. We are now focusing on weak spots and trying to fix them. We can't just rely on internet and analogue for radio to remain relevant."
He thinks that a decision about the date of analogue switchoff should be made at the end of 2013; will then be clearer if 2015 is a realistic timescale
• The BBC is spending £50m a year on DAB content and distribution: other investment will have to come from Government and commercial broadcasters
• Digital Radio UK says it's seen an integrated in-car DAB converter for all FM radios, but won't say from whom, which means no need for dashboard boxes and extra aerials. Our betting's on Pure...
• Talking of which, Pure says it's important to avoid radio merely becoming another app on a smartphone; DAB devices/services have to remain relevant to new listeners
• Consumer Expert Group on digital switchover: DAB needs better content, better coverage, accessibility and cheap upgrades
• Age UK says only radios that are future-proofed should continue to be sold. And there should be clearer consumer labels such as the digital TV 'tick' symbol
• William Rogers, CEO of UKRD, says: "The DAB switchover is a shambles; it's incompetent and inept, with irresponsible promises made." This is getting interesting!
• If a public outcry can stop the closure of BBC 6 Music – which has less than a million listeners – what's the reaction going to be when the Government says it's going to switch off FM?
• According to RAJAR, 21 million people listen to DAB radio every week for at least 15 minutes
• But while 25% of radio listening is done digitally, only 15% is by DAB
• Don Foster MP, vice-chair of the Parliamentary Commercial Radio Group, admits he hadn't considered that consumers might be confused by DAB vs DAB+. Rather worrying
OK, that's it for now from the eForum on the Future of Radio, although heated discussions are continuing outside the forum.
Let us know what you think, either in the comments box below or join in the debate on our Forums.
Comments
In North Cornwall DAB is a total waste of time - I've borrowed a DAB set (Thank the Lord I didn't buy it!) and can't even receive the local radio stations with either any certainty or quality.
National radio? What a joke!
Reception in a car while on the move? Now you are having a giraffe!
Get real folks. Yesterdays technology, over budget, over priced and in rural areas completely and totally Useless.
SteveSJS
Here in rural Suffolk DAB is a joke. I need a huge external roof aerial for low audio qualty radio and further there is no local radio BBC or otherwise. I have given up with DAB and returned to FM. 95% of Listening on FM/AM and 5% on Internet radio. Further now just invested in a hifi fm receiver... Night and day compared to DAB...
A session or concert on BBC FM radio can sound incredibly immersive and involving - especially on radio 2/3. Listening to the same on DAB and it is lifeless, dull and completely un inspiring and that's with a so called hifi DAB tuner. If DAB is to succeed, I think they need to do a major redesign of the vintage digital encoding technology. DAB s current implementation is clearly dated and flawed.
DAB = low quality mp3's over the radio, no thanks! I want quality not quantity.
I have both DAB, FM and internet radio at home; the poorest signal quality by far is DAB. I would say that 90% of my home listening is internet radio; I honestly cannot see the benefits of DAB over IR. Where are the podcasts? Where is 'listen again'? Telling that many of Pure's products now come with both streams available. My car only has FM, however I can get internet radio with a rather heath-robinson Mi-Fi to iPod workaround... makes for some bizarre moments listening to San Francisco radio on the M42!
As a listener of Classic FM (ironic) on DAB and being at home most of the time I find it very infuriating when big chunks of the day are greeted by silence, as has just happened, when the signal disappears. Quality is great but coverage needs to be a lot better before the switch over.
To those who support DAB+... It may not be the panacea that you think it is. Look at Switzerland, look at Australia. There you have channels squeezed into minimal bandwidth just as with DAB in the UK. That means 48k to 64k bits/sec for DAB+, sometimes even 32k bits/sec. It sounds dreadful at those bit rates. The only ones who benefit from that situation are the broadcasters with lower costs and multiplex operators with more stations per multiplex.
My wife & I are young, avid radio listeners and use a variety of devices. In our brand new £17,000 car we use it's good old FM (DAB wasn't even an option). In the bedroom whilst my wife gets ready for work in the morning she listens via Freeview on the TV and in the study we have a Denon-M38DAB where I switch between FM/DAB. Oh and we also use our Blackberries to stream the radio too...
I personally feel that the car issue is one of the biggest issues. So far to my knowledge only Ford has claimed it will sell all DAB enabled cars. The cost implications for the millions of cars let alone the elderly who are probably confused enough about Freeview and rely on Radio probably a lot more than the rest of us!
If the DAB backers want us to buy a converter so that everything comes through FM, surely that defeats one of the main "so called" advantages: digital quality!
DAB uses 1980's technology! It's all very well having DAB+ in the wings but digital radios bought more than a short time ago are NOT upgradeable. So, we all have to buy again?
DAB is without doubt a very poor 2nd to FM! Generally, they cost more, use more power, so are not as green as they'd have us believe.
FM is also available across "borders"; ie I can listen to R. Lancashire in Chester, but on DAB I can NOT do that!
My car is 11 years old and has a radio/cassette! I'm not paying out hundreds to replace that just to get the same services I already have.
All-in-all, it's a bad system, poor quality, ill-thoughtout, I could go on! Altogether a non-starter.
Here in rural Norfolk, we have the opposite problem. A lot of FM reception is awful, but the DAB stations that we do get have great signal strength.
DAB is a joke. Only the insular minds in the UK are still betting on this dead horse. DAB+ may be a lot better and is being developed in other European countries.
My main complaints about DAB are the extremely poor bandwidth for most stations, the incredibly power hungry chips and the delay in de digital to analogue conversion. Just keep FM which works in all cars and transistor radios until a better standard is available which doesn't have all the drawbacks of DAB.
The quality of DAB radio is too poor compared to FM. DAB is a downgrade but I agree the overall amount of choice and content is better. DAB+? Internet radio?