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Media
DAB defenders say Vaizey’s MOU actually a big step forward
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 6 July 2012
A number of radio industry execs have hit out at the negative response from some quarters to the government’s Memorandum Of Understanding on digital audio broadcasting, which was announced earlier this week.
As previously reported, Communications Minister Ed Vaizey launched the voluntary agreement between various digital and radio firms on Monday. It aims to set in motion work to further expand the Digital Audio Broadcasting digital radio network, so that the long held plan to move mainstream stations off FM altogether (maybe with a view to shutting down FM one day, though smaller and community stations would remain there for the foreseeable) becomes more realistic.
DAB, and the bid to phase out FM, for mainstream stations at least, has proven controversial in the radio industry, with some players pushing for a speedy move to digital (if only to avoid the expense of having to broadcast on both FM and DAB), while others say that the digital network will never have gain enough traction to be a viable replacement to FM, and that new technologies will supersede DAB before it’s even properly got off the ground.
Critics point to the fact that, over ten years on, digital radio only currently accounts for 30% of radio listening, and that’s including internet and TV-based platforms. Though DAB advocates insist that figure is actually more impressive that their opponents suggest, that the vast majority of digital listening is via DAB, and that digital listening figures have grown significantly in recent years. They might also note that digital TV viewing only became the norm once the network had more or less universal reach, and the government started setting fixed deadlines for switchover.
Responding to claims by UKRD chief and frequent DAB critic William Rogers earlier this week, who called Vaizey’s MoU a “shambles”, mainly because its signatories weren’t legally bound by the agreement, radio expert Matt Deegan, Creative Director of Folder Media, insists that the latest agreement is crucial in assuring a digital future for radio.
Deegan told CMU: “The government, the BBC and commercial radio want as many people as possible to be able to get local and national DAB digital radio. At the moment many stations are paying for analogue and DAB transmissions (alongside digital television and internet services). To get coverage to the next level – 90% and then FM equivalence – takes even more money. The MoU provides a framework so stations know that as they invest more money in digital that there’s a plan for large local and all the national stations to move off FM altogether”.
He continues: “This is all driven by the listener. They like the choice on digital radio, they want more and they want it everywhere. Already 50% of listeners listen to some form of digital radio each week – that’s a massive proportion! And even though we know that, at the moment, any digital radio device sold doesn’t replace every analogue one in the home, on the move and at work, digital listening still accounts for 30% of all listening. That’s more than Radio 2 and Radio 4 – on every platform – combined. And I think that’s an unrated achievement”.
On the importance of DAB in the wider digital radio framework, Deegan adds: “DAB provides the bulk of digital listening – a little under three times what internet and digital television provides combined – so it’s important that we make sure that it is available everywhere. The scale of DAB means that stations like 6music, 1Xtra and Planet Rock are able to broadcast. The volume of their internet and digital television listening alone would mean they wouldn’t reach enough listeners to justify their cost. There are also much smaller stations, like our own Fun Kids, that once again wouldn’t be commercially justifiable without the huge reach DAB gives us”.
He concludes: “All media companies are finding the transition to a digital world difficult – but the MoU means all the main players are working together to provide the coverage and stations that listeners are demanding”.
