Have a read of this DRWG report that has just been published by the Dept for Culture, Media and Sport. Here is a summary of a note of which Andrew Harrison sent out to Radiocentre board members.

There are a few key points made in the report:

• DAB sales are currently 7m, with 9m predicted by the end of this year
• The Group believes that the industry cannot indefinitely support the increased costs of broadcasting analogue and digital on multiple platforms.
• Gaps and robustness of digital signal remains a key issue, particularly with respect to cars.
• 90% current coverage must increase
• The robustness of the current signal needs to be improved
• DAB is one form of a wider set of transmission standards called Eureka 147. France and Germany are proposing different variants to our DAB.
• European harmonisation is a key reason for lack of line fitted digital radios
• Approx 75,000 - 100,000 cars now have DAB fitted from new with a further 50,000 aftermarket sales.

The Group believes that radio must have a digital future because of choice and the additional functionality it would offer. They see IP (Internet delivery) as particularly important, but DAB remains key as a broadcast technology, and so we must remain using DAB as our broadcast technology.

PROPOSALS

• DAB should become the primary platform for all national, regional and large local services.
• Community and smaller local stations will need to remain on analogue as the most cost effective way of delivering radio. But a plan for migrating them to digital should be worked on.
• In places where DAB rollout is not economic, listeners should not be disadvantaged, and restructuring the FM network should take place.
• A concerted effort needs to be made to ensure that all future digital radio sets can receive and decode all variants of Eureka 147.
• All services will be migrated from MW onto either DAB or FM.

DIGITAL MIGRATION

• DAB should be clearly stated as the future
• A precise timetable cannot yet be set, but a set of circumstances for that to happen should be layed out including trigger criteria
• The criteria should include the amount of DAB listening. Determining exactly what level this should be will be examined by the Group in the second half of this year, although it’s likely to be around 50%.
• 2020 looks like the very latest date at which migration should have taken place.

ROUTE MAP

• There must be “further consideration should be made of what mechanisms can encourage greater investment in new and high quality digital content. One such mechanism might be to allow greater economies of scale in the commercial sector by allowing for greater consolidation of ownership and coverage, particularly of local multiplexes, which in turn may free up investment for increasing coverage and more digital-only content.”

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Overall this is pretty good news for us. Virgin Radio is already well along the digital migration path, and the key technology for listening - DAB - will remain key. There will be a job to do in London.

A few things that aren’t outlined in the report include discussions regarding using BBC radio services to turn digital ahead of commercial services to encourage take-up of sets.

There’s also no specific mention of the Digital One/Global and C4Radio discussions.

To give an idea of where we are before we reach 50% listening on DAB: although digital listening currently sits at 17.8%, DAB is at 11%. So there’s a way to go yet.

Another interesting side idea is the FM re-structuring that would ensure that current analogue listeners in predominantly rural areas are not disadvantaged. From Virgin Radio’s point of view they currently are. They don’t tend to receive us (we have few transmitters in those areas), but is there an option for us to get our signal out on FM in these regions? Possibly, if we still held a national licence following 2012. Will a MW licence be re-offered anyway? Something to consider anyway.

Adam