The UK government yesterday released its ‘Digital Britain’ report and once again confirmed its policy commitment to making DAB digital radio the primary means of migrating from analogue to digital radio.
The Digital Britain report follows the Digital Radio Working Group’s own report published in December 2008 which recommended steps towards analogue radio switch off as soon as 2017. The UK government report endorses these steps for migration to digital radio and sets out its strategy for DAB to become the primary radio platform in the UK.
WorldDMB President, Mr Quentin Howard, said “The Digital Britain report is a ringing endorsement for DAB digital radio, further assuring consumers and the radio industry that the platform is not only highly successful but here to stay. Sales of DAB receivers continue to be strong in established markets with many new countries adopting DAB standards, such as Australia and China. Meanwhile France and Germany are rolling out the DAB family in 2009 and 2010, confirming the platform as Europe’s preferred digital radio standard.”
In his statement yesterday Lord Carter, Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting said “The innovation, creativity and vitality of our communications industries rightly demand clarity from Government on its role and a framework for the future.”
The report sets out a number of UK Government decisions which include:
- a clear statement of policy commitment to DAB
- a plan for digital migration of radio and the necessary criteria to achieve this
- the creation of a new Digital Radio Delivery Group to increase the attractiveness, availability and affordability of DAB receivers and to advise on the Digital Migration Plan
- the intention to expand the BBC’s DAB network to match current FM analogue coverage
Meanwhile the Digital Radio Development Bureau announced that sales of digital radios up to the end of 2008 had reached 8.53 million in the UK and the latest official RAJAR audience figures show radio listening via DAB digital radio accounts for 11.4% of all radio UK listening, with DAB ownership increasing to 35%.
PURE, one of the leading manufacturers of DAB digital radio products, announced record export growth in 2008 to Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. A study in Denmark released in December shows that 34% of Danes now own a digital radio and that it is popular in all age groups.
(Source: Digital Radio Development Bureau)
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 14:56
DAB is a poor platform for radio, multiplex operators do NOT listen to their listeners and so they do NOT seem to care about quality at all rather preferring quantity over this and cramming more and more stations into the bandwidth so making this worthwhile. More and more local BBC/ILR stations in the UK are going onto DAB, MagicAM999 preston and RockFM97.4 preston have recently both gone onto this, and others are wanting to duplicate their output simultaneously on MW/FM and DAB in so doing this is reducing bitrates even more and more to fit the ever increasing tide of local and national radio stations into it at the expense of quality. The UK will end up with a multiple choice radio platform on DAB with all local and national BBC/ILR stations on it at poor quality sound and transmission bit rates. DAB+ is better than this rubbish we currently have and can allow stations to be broadcast at much higher and better quality.
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 15:18
History repeats.
Did you Brits not learn from the 405 lines transfer to 625 in TV.
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 15:18
Unfortunately, nobody seems to have told Chris Campling, The Times radio critic. He has today written a story called FM is dead, long live Dab: http://tinyurl.com/dhqxko. But some other journalists are more enlightened: David Hewson has blogged a riposte to Mr Campling’s “utterly ridiculous article” at http://www.davidhewson.com/blog/2009/1/30/the-digital-radio-myth-continues.html
The real problem here is that the UK government wants to auction off the FM spectum to the highest bidder as soon as possible to help pay for the massive bailouts it is currently handing out. The irony is that in the current downturn, these bids are likely to be much lower. The government no doubt hopes that the economy will have picked up by 2017. But I’ve seen some pessimistic predictions that the downturn could last for 20 years! Let’s face it, nobody knows, not even the IMF.
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 16:38
I don’t understand Ruud’s point. It is not the British people who have taken this decision. It is the government, which has always done its own thing in respect of broadcasting ( and lots of other issues ).
Secondly, we did very nicely out of the transition from 405VHF to 625UHF because we waited till last. The Americans came first with their NTSC ( Never Twice the Same Colour ) and then came Europe with an assortment of systems such as SECAM and finally Britain introduced PAL I, the best system of the lot, which held us in good stead for many years.
I think we should do the same with radio. At the present time, there is so much going on in the world of technology that even radio experts ( and the politicians are not such ) don’t know which way to turn.
DAB is ancient and likely to be superceded before it can be fully implemented. This reminds me of the Monty Python dead parrot sketch with the government insisting that the parrot is still alive, for purely political reasons.
I also feel that this government is in its dying days and wants to make decisions itself to prevent the Conservatives from doing so.
However, even there, they may be too late. Mrs Thatcher overturned the previous Labour governemnets decision to let the BBC run Channel 4, and in the same way, it may be possble for the next Conservatibe government to change the decision if they have understood the radio situation by the time they come to office.
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 16:38
Typical British Government - sell, sell, sell! Reminds me of an old Genesis song ‘Selling England By The Pound’, but the Government isn’t stopping there…they’re selling the entire UK! Long live FM - I think it sounds better anyway, plus the DAB in use in the UK is now old hat! Ok, calmed down now
on Jan 30th, 2009 at 23:13
I can’t believe this. Did the people who worked on the report not listen to Kerrang! on one of the local Northern multiplexes? Absolute sounds better on AM where I live.
Also, I can have my laptop near my radio when I’m listening to a local FM station, but if I do that with DAB, it interfears with the signal. I thought DAB was supposed to be better in terms of reception.
Finally, what is the future for community radio if all this goes ahead? It’s only supposed to cover small areas, but as things stand, stations like Canalside in Macclesfield would actually broadcast across Staffordshire and Cheshire.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 07:08
From my observations it’s difficult for the average UK consumer to buy an AM-FM radio without DAB, No wonder the sale of DAB receivers is on the increase.
If I buy an FM radio here in Bangkok or Asia I know it will work around the world is this true of DAB?
Surely whatever standard used needs to be implemented internationally, or is that too much like common sense.
Finally, a touch of nostalgia, while passing through Dubai airport last week was surprised to see a portable radio with only medium and shortwave and an old fashioned analogue tuning dial on sale for about $20USD, looked like something from the 70s but was actually very new.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 11:32
That depends what sort of DAB radio you buy, Richard. The UK uses the original DAB standard which is an out-of-date system with poor compression. That’s why the quality of UK DAB transmissions is so bad, because they’re trying to cram in too many stations for a given bandwidth. Most radios sold in the UK can only receive this system. But more and more countries are using the newer DAB+ system, where the compression is twice as good. DAB+ radios can also decode the newer system, but not vice versa.
The UK could theroretically upgrade its transmission standard to DAB+, but then how do you tell all these people who already have a DAB radio that they’ll have to buy a new one? So the industry is hoping that most people will be too ill-informed to know that what they are being told is a lot of twaddle. And if they take their radios abroad to a country that uses DAB+, they won’t hear anything and presumably will assume that the other country doesn’t have DAB.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 13:35
Dear Steve,
When I mentioned Brits, I mean the government and decisionmakers on these issues. Not the fine people in your country obviously.
My point is that if you are an early adopter of a system the risk is that it is obsolete very soon. In TV many mechanical systems were introduced and failed for poor quality. Same goes for the color wheel sytem in the USA which for a short time was the official NTSC system.
So my humble advice would be, stop DAB and wait for a better system, in my vision this would be Internet based.
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 21:38
Yes. I totally agree with your last sentence, Ruud and, in the end, DAB will die, but how much money is going to be wasted before it does ?
on Jan 31st, 2009 at 21:41
The UK’s Digital Radio Working Group have proposed a migration to DAB+ when most sets can receive it.
That’s quite different from the suggestions on here that the UK has rejected DAB+ completely. It’s probably about 4 or 5 years away but the UK will adopt DAB+ well before the proposed FM switch-off date of 2017, which is optimistic anyway.
The Conservatives are broadly in favour of the plans, but they have criticised the Labour Government for launching another consultation period (which ends on 12th March) rather than getting on with it.
on Feb 1st, 2009 at 14:41
Governments should keep more distance from the media, including the technology.
My humble feeling is that you should not impose an analogue switch off at all, it never happened with AM when FM became the dominant platform.
Let the people and the market decide if and when distributions platforms need to be outphased.
This has all to do with greediness of Governments to sell out spectrum, and was greediness not one of the causes of the credit crunch? Will they ever learn. (Change, yes we can????)
on Feb 5th, 2009 at 18:54
Prime time radio, on DAB failed, Prime time on FM, NOW CALLED sMOOTH, Abig hit. Need I say more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!