GOVT. SHOULD PLAN TO END ANALOG RADIO, U.K. DIGITAL RADIO GROUP SAYS
The head of a U.K. radio industry group urged the govt. last week to set a date for switching all analog radio to digital. Speaking at a monthly company seminar, GWR Group Exec. Chmn. Ralph Bernard, who also chairs the Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB), said digital radio was so successful in the U.K. that the govt. should begin planning for it to replace analog signals. He called on the govt. to allocate new digital spectrum coming available in the next few years to digital audio broadcasting (DAB) and asked broadcasters to use the spectrum to fill in “white spaces” in the country where digital radio wasn’t available.
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Bernard asked the Office of Communications (Ofcom) and the Dept. of Culture, Media & Sport to schedule a meeting to work out criteria and a timetable for a digital switch-over, a GWR spokesman told us. Neither has responded -- the letters went out Jan. 21 -- but the request isn’t likely to surprise either body, the spokesman said. The govt. already has set 2010 as the year in which all analog TV signals must switch to digital. Neither Ofcom nor the govt. commented.
The govt. is making new spectrum available, which means the digital radio industry is “faced with a midcourse change,” Bernard said. Most broadcast new technology introductions begin with spectrum allocation, followed by a transmitter build program, then by consumer takeup of the new technology -- the path taken by color TV. As DRDB chmn., Bernard said, he takes the view that what’s needed is a path to digital switch-over for radio akin to that already set for digital TV. By setting a date for switch-over, he said, the govt. will give manufacturers a target for bringing in new products, give broadcasters a time scale for building new digital brands and giving “us the prospect of stopping the waste and expense of broadcasting our signals on both analog and digital.”
The new spectrum won’t necessarily go to radio broadcasters, Bernard said. He urged broadcasters to unite to “press home the point that DAB offers the best use of this spectrum.” Once broadcasters have won, he said, they should use the spectrum to fill in gaps in the country where DAB can’t be received, and to offer new local and regional DAB coverage to stations currently unable to transfer to digital radio. However, he said, some commercial broadcasters have said they would like another commercial national multiplex, despite that fact that allocating the spectrum for more national broadcasting could widen the digital divide between metropolitan and rural areas. (Bernard heads the only existing commercial national multiplex in the U.K., Digital 1).
There aren’t many broadcasters who would dispute the benefits of DAB, and clarity from the govt. is a good idea, said Paul Brown, chief executive of the Commercial Radio Companies Assn. (CRCA), of which Digital 1 is a member. All CRCA members believe development of DAB should be “careful,” Brown said, and new spectrum should be used to complete the digital radio network.
Unlike the U.S., the U.K. opted to go with Eureka DAB for terrestrial digital radio. The U.S. and U.K./European systems differ significantly. The U.S. has loads of spectrum, no national radio service and huge spaces that overcome much of the interference with FM radio, Brown said. Because of the larger gaps on wavebands, U.S. broadcasters can use “in-band, on-channel” spaces located on the same frequency, but U.K. broadcasters must use single blocks of frequencies (multiplexes of 8-9 services) on new frequencies, he said.
Many thought Eureka DAB wouldn’t work and that consumers wouldn’t buy the necessary digital receivers, Brown said. But the industry convinced manufacturers to build reasonably priced devices that now sold at the rate of 100,000 per month, he told us. It’s encouraging, Brown said, that Bernard was able to talk about switch-over as a distinct possibility and that the competition was healthy enough that many were seeking part of the new spectrum.