Digital Britain Report: Chapter 3b
Chapter 3b: Radio: Going Digital
AMBITION: TO SECURE AND DELIVER A DIGITAL RADIO PLATFORM FOR THE BENEFIT OF BROADCASTERS AND LISTENERS.
- Radio remains important, even in the world of ubiquitous television and Internet.
- Operating a digital radio is—compared to television, fixed– or mobile-telecoms—comparatively cheap.
- The radio industry is worth about £1.1bn per year to the British economy, but is worth disproportionately more in cultural terms.
- “Today’s radio industry has been shaped more by the scarcity of the analogue spectrum than by market demand.”
- DAB is, in technical terms, clearly the way forward.
- The biggest barrier to radio’s digital future is a lack of clarity and commitment to the DAB platform.
- The Digital Radio Upgrade programme will be a single-date switchover, similar to the US digital (television) switchover.
- The date will be announced at least two years in advance, and be contingent upon 50% of listeners migrating to DAB; national DAB coverage being comparable to FM; local DAB reaching 90% of the population.
- Legislative tweaks will ensure licenses can be terminated properly to allow for the switchover.
- The intention is that the criteria should be met by the end 2013.
- There may be a Digital Radio Help Scheme to aid in encouraging uptake of digital receivers.
- DAB has been settled upon as the primary technology (as opposed to DAB+, DMB-A, or DRM [Digital Radio Mondiale, rather than Digital Rights Management, in this context]).
- The BBC and the multiplex operator should work together to ensure transmitter-sharing where possible.
- Environmental/green concerns of the switchover, and WEEE, are noted.
- Changes planned for local commercial radio regulation; primarily a relaxation of rules, although the frequency of news bulletins will increase.
- Extension of all local commercial radio licenses to 2020, and multiplex licenses to 2030.
- Removal of radio-specific and cross-media ownership rules.
- Allow community radio stations to be licensed in areas served by commercial stations with a coverage of 50,000 adults or fewer.
- The report makes it clear that other delivery mechanisms (DVB, the Internet) also have a part to play in delivery of radio content.
At the heart of our vision is the delivery of a Digital Radio Upgrade programme by the end of 2015.
This will deliver an upgrade from FM to DAB and from MW to FM.
To ensure future policies take account of the wide range of listener needs we have invited the Consumer Expert Group, which brought together key consumer representatives to inform the Digital TV switchover process, to extend its scope to cover radio. In addition, we will conduct a full Impact Assessment, including a Cost/Benefit Analysis of Digital Radio Upgrade. The results of this Impact Assessment will help determine whether there is a case for a Digital Radio Help Scheme and, if so, what its scope might be.
At a national level we will look to the BBC to begin an aggressive roll-out of its national multiplex to ensure its national digital radio services achieve coverage comparable to FM by the end of 2014.
It is our intention that where possible the BBC and national commercial multiplex operator should work together to ensure that any new transmitters benefit both BBC and commercial multiplexes.
These proposals will be supported by new legislation granting Ofcom powers to alter multiplex licences which agree to merge.
We are prepared to extend multiplex operators’ licences until 2030. We will also consider with Ofcom the case for delaying the implementation of AIP on DAB multiplexes until after the Digital Radio Upgrade is completed. In order to ensure any changes complement our timetable these powers will be time limited and we will make our decision on whether to offer such rewards after the Spring 2010 review.
We will work with Ofcom to agree a two-year pilot of a new output focused regulatory regime. This will consider the impact stations have on the communities they serve, perhaps by an agreed set of obligations proposed by stations themselves, much in the same way community radio stations do. If successful this new regulatory mechanism could be rolled out more widely.
a reduction in the number of locally-produced hours in exchange for an enhanced commitment to regular and updated local news.
Alongside this report we have published a short consultation seeking views on proposals for a new licence renewal regime for community radio. In addition, we are proposing the removal of the 50% funding limit from any one source and the restriction preventing a station being licensed in an area overlapping with a small commercial service. We are also extending our commitment to promoting best practice within the community sector and encouraging self-sustainability by allocating a small portion of the Community Radio Fund to support the work of the industry body, the Community Media Association.
We will introduce new legislation which will insert a two-year termination clause into all new licences. This will be triggered by the Government when the exact timetable for Digital Radio Upgrade can be better determined.
We propose to grant Ofcom new powers to extend the licence period of all national and local licences, broadcasting on DAB, for up to a further seven years. However, we will keep this decision under review and if by the end of 2013 it is clear the Digital Upgrade timetable will not be achieved we will use the powers, set out above, to terminate licences and the existing licensing regimes will apply.
We will amend the rules under which Ofcom grant analogue licence renewals to ensure that regional stations which do become national DAB stations do not lose their current or future renewal.
The timing of the report is fortuitous. The DAB-related proposals are amongst the better parts overall, and the success of the digital switchover in the US—which the Digital Radio Upgrade programme is clearly modelled on, lends support to this view.
In terms of local radio, this is a bit of mixed bag. Removal of cross-media and radio-specific ownership rules could result in some nasty consolidation (I’m going to have to consult with friends in the know before I can get a real idea of how likely that is), but the increase in news output and new rules governing community radio stations will hopefully usher in a new age of radio: one that’s determined less by spectrum availability and more by demand and need.
My overriding concerns from this are focussed solely on the local radio part of the chapter, namely that:
- Increases in news bulletin frequency will result in further cost-cutting on already-stretched newsdesks.
- Consolidation as a result of relaxed ownership regulation may result in a small number of large operators of commercial stations, rather than a large number of small competing operators.
On the first point, I want to stress that I believe that an increase in locally-produced news bulletin output is definitely a worthy aim and should be encouraged, if not regulated for as proposed. I do know that budgets are critically tight in news at the moment—I hope the reduction in broadcast hours is a sufficient trade-off to ensure budgetary requirements can be met.
Hopefully the two-year pilot will address these concerns, though.
