Other stuff I worry about a bit

The debate on the future of radio has suddenly got a bit busier.  News items and blog posts are coming-a-plenty.  Here’s another one.

Right.  The government have proposed a vague analogue switch-off date of 2015, provided that 50% of radio listening is taking place “digitally” and, well, they remember to do it.

Some people are a bit upset about that and maintain that this needs to be reviewed in the light of the many problems with the “most popular” digital radio format, DAB radio.  You know, the ones in faux-leather cases in John Lewis.  For clarity, here’s a collected list of the gripes.  There may be more – apologies if I’ve missed any.

• coverage isn’t good enough, particularly outside of London & major population centres.  Even there, coverage can be patchy – but then, so can analogue;
• most people buying cars (old & new) are buying cars with analogue-only radios and people listen to a lot of radio in the car;
• new-for-old DAB radios are still too expensive.  Yes, you can get a DAB radio for £25 but if you were buying the equivalent-quality analogue radio, that would be £6.  And, as for the cool stuff – £249 for the Sensia.  Nice, but how much is a Wii or Xbox this Christmas?
• the broadcast model as it stands at present doesn’t address the concerns of existing (mostly local) analogue licence holders – how do we serve the needs of the listeners to Spire FM, for example which currently sits outside of all existing and planned multiplex areas?
• the technology is outdated in the sense that the digital compression currently in use is an inefficient use of the bandwidth available as coding technology has moved on significantly.  Further, the introduction of DAB+ which makes better use of the bandwidth would render most current DAB radios obsolete.
• there’s nothing much on.  That’s to say, most of it is rebroadcast of existing analogue services and those brave souls providing additional content are finding it tough to put the dinner on the table.

In an address to the Radio Academy “Radio at the Edge” conference, Lisa Kerr, Digital Radio UK’s campaign director, acknowledged these limitations in the digital pathway.  Her solution?  Simple – get on and sort it, organically.  But for argument’s sake, let’s start with the coverage.  ”Sorting” that is going to take a fair chunk of cash.  Cash which neither Arqiva, the BBC or the commercial radio industry as a whole wants to spend given the investments already made.  So who will pay?

Second issue – cars.  Manufacturers are just not interested.  There aren’t many car-buying people turning up (at all, but…) and insisting on DAB, at the moment.  They wouldn’t, though – as Matt Deegan writes, they don’t care about the platform.  They just want to listen to the radio in the car.  And maybe plug their iPod in.

Third – price of sets.  Leaving aside the fact that most people don’t go out and buy standalone radios these days (the last two radios I bought were “parts” of other purchases – a phone and a car  - the last standalone radio I bought was around 5 years ago when I bought a small portable radio to put in the bathroom) it’s still difficult to comprehend how we might replace all the bathroom, kitchen and shed radios with shiny new ones when equivalent sets are up to 4 times the price.

Fourth – existing analogue licence-holders.  Now it gets political.  There are a bunch of existing licence holders (and, let’s remember, that’s what they are – content providers holding licences to broadcast on FM and AM) that believe in some way that it is their right to continue broadcasting their service ad-infinitum to the public.  ”Sorting” this particular problem out is going to be a real headache for someone.  Existing licence holders argue that they are providing some kind of public service so should be granted a digital pathway while Digital Radio UK says that, ominously, “there needs to be more clarity about the future for those stations”.  It’s true that the complainants are right – existing analogue licence-holders are being disenfranchised by this process.  But – what right do they have to continue churning out Coldplay and Leona Lewis songs interspersed with occasional local information and commercials?  The cold bare fact is that they have no such right beyond the end of their existing analogue licence.

Fifth – the old DAB+ question.  Again, big PR nightmare with massive cost.  Whoops.

So, having said all that, what will the future of digital radio in the UK look like?  I feel it may be necessary to simplify the whole thing radically.  There are too many competing commercial interests for the result to become a good thing for the listener at present.

• Separate the existing analogue licence holders from the requirements of a service for the listener. It’s true to say that there should be a local radio service for, for example, Kings Lynn.  The existing analogue licence-holder, KLFM has proved a need for the service – audience reach around 50% according to RAJAR.  However, it should not be a given that the digital pathway includes space for KLFM itself – just a local service for Kings Lynn.
• Given that, perhaps it’s time to rethink the model. Currently both Sovereign Radio and Heart Sussex play the same sort of music – some of the same songs – at the same time.  Perhaps the services should be diverse, interactive.  A music service called Heart and a local information service called Sovereign, doing different things.  The argument falls off the wheels somewhat when we look at how DAB is broadcast – the multiplex covering this area is far too large to make it a good use of spectrum to put a Sovereign Radio service on there, even if it had space – but perhaps with a sensible introduction of DAB+, this may be addressed.  Further, the “how we make money out of that” question isn’t easily answered – but it needs to be.
• Ensure that Digital Radio UK operates as exactly that – not as DAB Radio UK. It’s vital that an independent body creates good governance across the whole radio switchover.  There are just too many commercial interests in accepting “DAB only” as the way forward at present.  Digital (TV) UK did not operate as Freeview UK – it is platformless, politically, and promotes Freeview, Freesat, cable & internet as part of its remit to ensure a trusted and viable transition from analogue television.
• Embrace IP as a method to the mix. While Digital Radio UK is discounting internet as a viable method of delivery, work will continue on effective multicasting, better coding & livelier services not available via the standard broadcast model of DAB (although the excellent work on RadioDNS helps to break DAB out of its 128 character world).  This work will continue and needs to be counted as part of the solution.  Besides, 17 million radio listeners do not need 17 million individual connections at 128kbps – many are listening to the same radio (on the school run, in the kitchen) and the internet is capable of almost instantly delivering the latest coding methods to reduce the bandwidth usage where DAB cannot.  It cannot do every listener – but it must, and will, do a fair chunk of them, particularly where multicast is properly and effectively used.
• Get out of London.  There is, without question, too much London in this.  I work in London a couple of days a month and DAB is great.  Fantastic.  The best (well… ish).  I can drive around and listen to 70 or 80 different radio services without the signal dropping out.  I live, though, in rural Wiltshire (no, don’t try to get a cab to get all the way here) – DAB is not the friend of me driving my daughter to nursery in the morning on a main A road.  National BBC and Digital One services are patchy at best and unavailable at worst.  This problem needs to be sorted – now.  This is the first real-world thing that needs to be done and it may need a wholesale review to prevent future costs.
• Take the pain of moving to DAB+ – soon. The earlier this is done, the less it will cost and is the second real-world thing to get done.  There will need to be serious subsidy for both retail & trade products.  Car manufacturers need to be financially persuaded to put them in their cars – bear in mind that both BMW and Nissan have already been persuaded to put in satellite radio sets for a format that doesn’t even exist yet; retail customers need to know that they weren’t ripped off when buying that Pure box a few years ago.
• Get the chips into mobile phones.  Again, this will need some financial persuasion to the likes of Apple, Nokia and Blackberry.  First, though, sort the power consumption problems, get efficient DAB+ chips ready and then – find the right price point that persuades the mobile manufacturers to add them in.  (Author agrees this is a fairly steep mountain to climb).

In essence, all of the above can be summarised as – go independent on this.  Take the decision-making process away from those with vested interests in either the status-quo or a particular digital routemap, either financial or conceptual.  Once that is done, it’s likely that there will be a cleaner and more listener-focused progression towards digital and producers really can get on with making those great radio programmes.

Filed under: digital, radio, Uncategorized