This morning, I was in the BBC Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House along with several hundred colleagues who work for broadcasters, regulators, hardware manufacturers, car manufacturers and assorted others to hear Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, stand up and talk about the future of digital radio in this country. The event was DRUK’s Go Digital conference – their third annual get together.
It’s a subject spoken about with a lot of passion by a lot of people. And it’s undoubtedly true that there are some profound disagreements from different operators across the spectrum.
In general, I think I came out quite enthused by what the minister and many of the other speakers said:
– near commercial FM equivalency by 2016 for local DAB digital radio, bringing many local services to more people, and improving the in-car listening experience, and funded by the DCMS, BBC and commercial radio.
– a second national commercial digital multiplex, potentially allowing ten or so new national services to launch.
– improved D1 coverage to Classic FM equivalency by 2016, so more people can hear services like Absolute Radio on DAB.
– consultations on relaxed music formats.
– consultations on community radio funding opportunities.
– further investigation into hyper-local DAB potential following the Ofcom test in Brighton.
– the launch of a digital tick for consumers to be satisfied that what they buy today will still receive all their services tomorrow.
– the Department of Transport using the DVLA to alert motorists to digital radio in car (I assume while there’s still actual paperwork coming from the DVLA!)
– a new 4th generation Frontier Silicon chipset that includes every global digital and analogue radio form factor in a single chip that now costs 10% what the 1st generation did, using the same power as today’s FM, and crucially, that will work in mobile phones.
– the prospect of £10 DAB radios.
– new services coming to DAB in 2014 including Kisstory.
– the entire Halfords radio range being digital by 2015.
– Kwik Fit entering the digital radio fitting marketplace in 2014 – get a DAB radio while you have your MOT done.
– a demonstration of RadioPlayer working on a mobile phone hooked into Ford’s Sync Applink.
All really quite positive announcements.
Is it all plain sailing from here? No. Of course not. But then it hasn’t been plain sailing getting to this point as Matt pointed out in an excellent post yesterday.
There are plenty of hurdles to overcome. Some radio stations still don’t have an obvious route to a digital broadcast platform. There are 30m or so cars in the UK that need an affordable digital solution. And there are still lots of people who have yet to be sold on the real benefits digital radio brings.
But this movement is all in the right direction, and I think most people in the industry appreciate those challenges.
Because the reality is that if the industry doesn’t evolve, then consumers will evolve without us.
Off the top of my head, here are just a few of challenges, the radio industry faces in the coming months and years regardless of what we do:
– Getting anyone under 25 to actually listen to the radio at all (And those under 25s very quickly become under 35s and so on).
– Avoid having radio appear on a sub-menu in car. That real estate between the driver and passenger in the front of a car is being fought over an awful lot, and there are plenty of non-broadcast radio “solutions” being offered to manufacturers who’s primary focus is still engineering metal boxes to move us around.
– Bringing our radio services to devices that people want to buy. A common anti-digital issue that gets raised is the stagnation of DAB set sales (against an economic collapse no less). But the problem is less that they don’t want DAB, as much as ignoring radio in general. Is radio a “sexy” device? I suspect that most teens or twenty-somethings are less after a DAB radio than a Bluetooth connected speaker of some sort. And yes, I know you can get DAB radios with Bluetooth connectivity. Oh and let’s not get into all those supposed analogue radio sales – they’re in the most part analogue radios built into devices that do other things. Many smart- and non-smartphones for starters. The one key exception here is the sub-£10 clock radio, which needs a cheap digital solution.
– Bringing to market in-car solutions that don’t represent a sizeable percentage of the car’s overall value (a £200 radio isn’t much use in a £500 car).
– Competing with new services, and not either pretending they don’t exist, or that our listeners aren’t using them. Can your radio station offer things that Spotify or iTunes Radio can’t? Certainly. Are you sure you’re doing it? If all you’re doing is playing the same tracks back to back with minimal presenter interaction, and somehow wanting to get 15 minutes of ads out an hour, then you’re probably on borrowed time. Did Radio 1, Kiss or Capital have the exclusive on the new Beyoncé album at the weekend? No. It was iTunes. This is what we’re up against. And pretending these interlopers haven’t parked their tanks on our lawns is a certain way to bring about the beginning of the end. But we also need to sell our services to listeners. Explain to them why we offer what they can’t get from a streaming service. And then we have to deliver on that promise. We need to up our games. Bad radio won’t cut it anymore.
Overall, this will be a consumer-led revolution. But you know what? It’s already happening. It’s not a question of radio going digital, it’s a question of whether or not we as an industry are providing the right services to consumers in the places that they’re already going.
They already are going digital. All of them. Like your local newspaper wasn’t, your station is not going to be a special case.
Here’s a Media Guardian report from this morning, and here’s a DCMS press release and the full speech from Ed Vaizey. And here’s a link to a video explaining how Ford Sync works with Radioplayer.
Comments
7 responses to “A Digital Radio Future”
Kwik Fit entering the digital radio fitting marketplace in 2014 – get a DAB radio while you have your MOT done.
You’re surely not putting this forward as a sensible suggestion? You would let some person with greasy overalls who has been on a one day course at Kwik Fits own training centre take parts of your car interior apart?
There are plenty of auto electrical specialists out there. Use one of them.
I’m not putting this forward. Kwik Fit is. And if they’re a trained specialist, then yes. Do I trust them with my tyres or brakes? I believe it’ll be there more specialist branches rather than the more usual smaller ones.
Indeed there are plenty of audio specialists out there and they’ll do a superb job. Let’s see what everybody offers and at what price.
What needs to happen to get more people to listen is
1) Allow DAB+ to run alongside traditional MPG2 DAB. Music broadcast 64Kb/s mono is NOT acceptable as a comparison to FM quality and sounds crap in a car!
2) Cap the broadcast costs as these are ridiculously prohibitive for smaller stations.
3) Don’t grant DAB licenses to any more Rock stations – there’s more than enough thank you! How about decade-specific stations that aren’t run by a company who ignores the majority of the hits of the era they’re meant to be playing (yes Absolute, I’m talking about you and your refusal to play most top 10 “pop” songs after around 1986!)
4) Companies to release in-car head units, run on something like Android that can be linked to the home WiFi for upgrades that supports FM, DAB, DAB+ and Internet streaming via mi-fi or tethered smartphone. And actually supporting upgrades on the platform for more than 2 years or so unlike the smartphone & tablet industry.
Hi Dave,
In response to your points:
1. I suspect that this will be part of a D2 plan. It’s in everyone’s interests. The only issue will be older DAB radios that can’t be upgraded. The Digital Tick will help as these sets will be DAB+ compatible.
2. The costs are based on the transmitter charges. Arqiva has a near monopoly in the UK for transmission. But I’m not sure of any marketplace where intervention prevents a private company charging what they think the market will bear. Perhaps the things I’ve mentioned in point 1 will help regulate this a bit.
3. That’s an Ofcom issue. I think many were surprised when a third rock station appeared on D1 but we all play by the rules the regulator sets. That said, I do thing think that there are clear differences between the kinds of rock music played by Absolute Radio (and its decades services), Planet Rock and Teamrock. And as for Absolute 80s playlist – not my bag. I would point out that the station is the most successful commercial digital only station in the country though, so we must be doing something right! (More seriously, it’s a product of the audience and their expectations.)
4. Wouldn’t disagree at all with that. Although if you can point me to a hardware company – particularly running an evolving OS like Android for beyond a couple of years – then you’re doing well. But I agree, they should.
1. “I suspect that this will be part of a D2 plan. It’s in everyone’s interests. The only issue will be older DAB radios that can’t be upgraded. The Digital Tick will help as these sets will be DAB+ compatible.”
Excellent idea – let’s hope they implement it. Also don’t forget some radios that aren’t listed as DAB+ compatible actually are, and others may just be able to get a firmware upgrade. I loaded the New Zealand firmware on to my in car Pure 1 DAB radio instead of the UK version which now gives me the option for DAB+ should I drive abroad into Europe.
2. “The costs are based on the transmitter charges. Arqiva has a near monopoly in the UK for transmission. But I’m not sure of any marketplace where intervention prevents a private company charging what they think the market will bear. Perhaps the things I’ve mentioned in point 1 will help regulate this a bit.”
If it’s a near monopoly, then the Monopolies Commission could get involved as they could be seen to be actively pricing out smaller broadcasters in favor of the big boys. Also as supply of Radio & TV is essentally a public service, maybe the transmitter industry should be regulated as the utility companies are?
3. “That’s an Ofcom issue. I think many were surprised when a third rock station appeared on D1 but we all play by the rules the regulator sets. That said, I do thing think that there are clear differences between the kinds of rock music played by Absolute Radio (and its decades services), Planet Rock and Teamrock. And as for Absolute 80s playlist – not my bag. I would point out that the station is the most successful commercial digital only station in the country though, so we must be doing something right! (More seriously, it’s a product of the audience and their expectations.)”
It’s not though is it? If I listen to an 80’s station I expect all sorts of music from the ’80s, not just guitars/synth pop. What about Stock, Aitken & Waterman? They dominated the 80’s toward the end, the only SAW track that gets played is “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive. Also what about all the late 80’s dance? Freestyle? Novelty tunes (Star Trekkin’ etc!). The Forgotten 80’s show is brilliant but even those are missing out on some of the best forgotten stuff because of the stations refusal to play certain genres/producers. ThreeTenRadio – Only The 80’s, Non Stop Neon and other internet stations play a vast spectrum of genres as well as the “classics”. Absolute should too.
4. “Wouldn’t disagree at all with that. Although if you can point me to a hardware company – particularly running an evolving OS like Android for beyond a couple of years – then you’re doing well. But I agree, they should.”
I actually found Chinese companies doing just the thing on eBay. Do I trust them though – that’s the question!
Actually the Monopolies and Mergers Commission did look at the Arqiva takeover of NGW (the previous main competitor). There were remedies at it was passed.
And with regard to Absolute 80s, the key is the “Absolute” bit of the name. It’s part of the Absolute Radio brand. The idea is that it plays an Absolute Radio tinged view of the 80s. So not everything. And so that’s not going to be vast amounts of SAW because that’s at the pop end of the spectrum of music. The same is true of Absolute Radio 90s which plays a Absolute Radio informed part of what was a pretty diverse period in music. In the end it’s a decision every station makes. Classic FM certainly doesn’t play the full breadth of classical music – they play the more popular end of the spectrum.
Then the Station’s brand is “tinged” itself!
From dictionary.com
Absolute: [ab-suh-loot]
adjective –
1) Free from imperfection, complete, perfect.
2) Not mixed or unadulterated, pure.
3) Complete, outright.
4) Free from restriction, or limitation.
By limiting the playlist to not include certain genres, producers or artists, the output of Absolute x0’s whichever decade it is, should therefore by definition be able to be comprised of the complete, unlimited output from each decade, and not limited to what a constrained group of people think should be played! I’m pretty sure that by naming the brand Absolute x0’s, to the casual listener it’s not as one would expect it. Also for ages the strapline “The UK’s only x0’s radio station” was being used on both 70s and 80s when at the time there was Smooth 70’s, Nation 80’s, Free Radio 80’s probably others elsewhere in the country. Also it’s not “complete” as in the definition of “absolute” as all the Absolute stations carry the Christian O’Connell breakfast. If I switch on an 80’s station in the morning, I don’t expect to hear Coldplay, Kings of Leon or the other stuff from the 00’s. An 80’s station should play 80’s music, and the same goes for 60’s, 70’s and 90’s.
Whilst I and others are quite happy to listen to the output of Absolute 80’s (and its brethren), and as you rightly say they’re the most listened to commercial digital station, I suspect that they would gain more listeners and be even more popular if they didn’t limit the playlists so much and got rid of COC (in my opinion one letter short!) in the morning on the decades stations – even replacing him with automation and songs from the right era would be a start. Of course he’d then plummet in the ratings which wouldn’t be as good for comparison against the likes of Radio 1 or Heart/Kiss etc. When D2 comes along I’d hope they all go back to at least 128k joint stereo as well (or even better, 128K stereo AAC+ DAB2!)