Tests of France’s proposed digital terrestrial radio system, which were scheduled to start this month, have been postponed, AFP news agency reported on 4 December. The move comes amid opposition from several sources - including private radio operators RTL, Europe 1, NRJ Group and NextRadioTV - and on the heels of a critical official report presented in November. According to the latter, stations would have to pay 126-188m euros more in annual transmission costs.
“We believe in digital terrestrial radio, but the distribution costs are too high,” Alain Weill from NextRadioTV, owner of RMC and BFM, told AFP. Weill added that the use of a standard other than that chosen - T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) - would reduce costs significantly.
Michel Boyon, head of the broadcasting regulator CSA, said tests were expected to start by the end of 2010, L’Express website reported on 4 December. “If radio does not digitize, it will slowly decline. It can not be the only media to stay out of the digital revolution,” he was quoted as saying during an online debate. “Internet radio is great, but it is totally inadequate in meeting listener demands,” he added.
Radio news website RadioActu said officials had gone for the wrong digital standard. “One day… the government will understand that the standard [originally developed for] Korean TV is not suitable for digital radio, and it will finally accept the evidence that it must adopt DAB+, like the rest of Europe.”
(Sources: AFP news agency, Paris, in French 4 Dec 09 L’Express website, Paris, in French 4 Dec 09 RadioActu.com, in French 4 Dec 09 via BBC Monitoring)
on Dec 7th, 2009 at 21:25
If radio does digitize, it will decline abruptly.
on Dec 7th, 2009 at 22:17
Radio has to go digital at some stage in its useful life if it is to keep up with technology advances or it will be left behind while everybody else is using it. For national broadcasters on AM that provide full countrywide coverage DRM shortwave is ideal;you only need one transmitter in an ideal location at a good effective power with a decent beam serving it. Local broadcasters serving small areas can use dab+ transmissions and regional broadcasters serving large county type areas can use drm+ transmissions via band II vhf-fm 87-108mhz. Commercial AM gold and speciality genre/ethnic minority stations that cannot afford to use or get on DAB+ or DRM+ via 87-108mhz vhf-fm would use DRM MW transmissions. The french should also talk to receiver manufacturers to get them on board as part of their plans and discuss the manufacture and sales of new sets to support the new broadcasts. It isnt difficult to go digital if you have the ambition as broadcasters and the interest and flair as radio set manufacturers to manufacture advertise and get new drm/dab+/drm+ radios to market to support those methods of digital transmission,delivery and reception.
on Dec 9th, 2009 at 14:49
Very simple to solve, just open the station as a DAB+ station. Low costs of transmission, easy to get a reciever.
on Dec 10th, 2009 at 20:20
Roy says it’s easy to get a DAB receiver.
Well, there are no DAB receivers on sale here in France.
But just about everybody now has a set-top box for their TV that can receive digital radio, so why buy a DAB radio when the other system is available for free. You just have to connect the set-top box to the stereo and that’s that!
DAB is out of the picture here and will remain so.
We don’t want DAB and we don’t want a digitized VHF-FM band either. There are too few channels. You would have to scrap analog outlets, and people won’t accept that, as most don’t want digital radio in the first place, FM being totally satisfactory in terms of sound quality.
on Dec 11th, 2009 at 13:54
I agree with Anthony. If there is the proper impetus behind the wish to implement an effective set of digital platforms for France then the technology is available. At least they are listening to their broadcasters before they go ahead with these tests, rather than pushing ahead blindly with a technology (DAB) that has become rapidly out of date as in the UK. A faintly amusing comment….\
on Dec 11th, 2009 at 14:58
Not only is FM satisfactory in terms of sound quality, the greater majority of digital transmissions do not sound as good. At present no station has anything to gain from simulcasting in digital mode. So let\’s wait for the economy to recover and start moving to digital when a pan-European system has been decided on that has proper sound quality as well as low transmission costs. It\’s introduction should be accompanied by an agreement with car manufacturers and other groups.
on Dec 11th, 2009 at 17:45
Haweeha,VHF-FM in analogue form, good as it is, isn’t totally out of the woods when it comes to reception quality and reliability,it is limited to line of sight,cannot penetrate buildings objects or hills easily without interference like reflections,S and Z sibilance,multipath distortion,hashing and hissing in cars as you drive and many other downfalls. Digital radio transmission/reception systems are far more robust and resistant to these types of problems resulting in better quality,better reception and the ease of use that comes from digital radio. DRM-SW for countrywide broadcasters beams a 100% technical reach across an entire country with directional antennas and it can also cover an entire continent if pan european using an omnidirectional antennae like RTLradio france did on 5990khz in the 49m band. DAB+ is a much better system over standard DAB capable of better sound quality and robustness and a better standard of home and in-car reception and should be embraced by small local area broadcasters. For countywide stations who cannot use DAB+ for cost reasons etc,DRM+ in the 87-108Mhz band is a next best option it has a wide range of flexibility and quality options from one or more CD quality stereo radio channels on one frequency to several reasonably good quality mono services on the same frequency and improved reception too. Countrywide
AM broadcasters ie rtl radio france/rtl radio germany/bbcr5l etc, needing to cover whole countries at less cost on very few transmitters can use DRM-SW or even DRM-LW even to achieve the 100% nationwide coverage they need to get their audiences. Golden oldie stations and speciality/genre/ethnic minority stations who dont need nationwide or countywide coverage who want to stick with AM but are looking to improve the quality of their existing offerings can use DRM-MW transmissions. A multiformat strategy of DRM-MW/DRM-LW/DRM-SW,plus DAB+/DRM+ standard embracement and acceptance along with manufacturer acceptance and manufacture production and sales of suitable compatible multiformat receivers to pick up all those standards produced by receiver manufacturers would ensure france leads the world in multistandard digital radio availability and provision.
on Dec 11th, 2009 at 18:26
Anthony, when over-the-air TV stations in the US switched to digital broadcasting many of them discovered that their coverage diminished. FCC had to allow them to increase their power temporarily.
Technologically, DRM-SW doesn’t seem to be good enough.
on Dec 11th, 2009 at 20:21
SRG,Freeview after recent switchover here in northwest england has increased its tx power from 10kW to 100kW on the winter hill tv transmitter thus improving reception for all of its viewers across the area, your notion that going digital worsens things is an anaethema and an unproven fact,the yanks and FCC wrongly think that transmitting digital terrestrial television at very low power works when clearly it doesnt at all. A 50kW DRM SW transmitter with an omnidirectional beam antenna on the higher frequencies of the 60m 49m 41m 31m band would effectively cover a good portion of Europe, RTL radio france officially covers france but with an omnidirectional beam tx goes across a good portion of the continent,on the DRM website some coverage maps show omnidirectional beam patterns of european and foreign DRM transmitters showing such results,obviously where the signals target will vary heavily due to propagation and reception conditions so the footprints don\’t always follow the beam pattern graphics.
on Dec 11th, 2009 at 20:48
Anthony, I thought your point was that digital signal is far more robust than analog one, at the SAME transmitting powers. Of course, if transmitter’s power is increased tenfold, there will be a better coverage.
The US experience seems to suggest that switching to digital delivery often requires increasing transmitters power to adequately service the same area. I guess such a switch still makes sense for TV. But I’m not convinced when it comes to digital radio on FM…
on Dec 26th, 2009 at 16:01
As an inhabitant of SW France I have viewed with concern the bulletins issued on behalf of our government on the future of DAB. I cannot see the point of using a standard unique to France as the cost of receivers will clearly be much higher than other countries which use a common standard. It would also be most frustrating to find that your car radio ceased functioning at the border.
A pan-european system shoud be agreed and implemented in all EBU countries.
on Feb 5th, 2010 at 12:27
To Roger,
don’t worry. The receivers are multistandard.
I’m working for a manufacturer of radio components and our chips support, AM/FM/DRM/DAB/DAB+/T-DMB (France and Korea) with all associated Audi Codecs (Musicam, AAC+, BSAC) and if needed others.
Radio today is software programmable from a technology point of view.