Matt Wells had something of a moan this week about what he called an advert for DAB that he’d heard on the BBC this week. He saw it as a straight ad for BBC viewers and listeners to go out and buy a DAB digital radio.
A couple of things Matt:
The BBC did exactly the same thing last year(That’s a link to the Media Guardian site containing the video from last year). And indeed the BBC has been effectively promoting the DAB format since it started. Indeed since their charter requires them to broadcast on DAB, it would be strange if they didn’t. The BBC is not promoting a particular brand of radio – they’re promoting the format. That’s not surprising since they broadcast in the format and have a national DAB multiplex.
Secondly, this is no different to what happened with Freeview where the BBC kicked life into the DTT format. They happily promoted – on air – the availability of the £99 box.
The BBC has also recently been promoting its HD channel. To watch that, I have to go out and buy and HD ready TV. And to watch that I also have to pay for a subscription to either Sky or Virgin Media, or go out and buy a Freesat box.
I know Matt Wells hates DAB digital radio, and he’s welcome to his opinions, which we hear endlessly week after week (although it was nice to hear the promotion of his sister company’s Christmas programming this week as news), but let’s have a little fairness shall we?
And it was entertaining that he enjoyed the Branagh version of Wallander. Last week, sight unseen, he wasn’t at all sure and thought that the books, which he hadn’t read, were rubbish. He might be interested to learn that the dramatisation was pretty accurate to the books. So perhaps he should try one or two before condemning them unread.
As for the Media Talk discussion about Project Kangaroo – well I’m going to get into that in another post. But I was disappointed by the level of discussion.