2nd national DAB multiplex finally re advertised
kev
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Ofcom has now advertised the second national dab multiplex http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/digital-radio/advertisement-2014/advertisement/?utm_source=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digitalradioadvertisement
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Appendix 3 of this document confirms the new local frequency plan. Suffolk will now use 10C and the plan to use 5A has been dropped.
I wonder why Ofcom are so reluctant to let go of this prescriptive 30% share. Why would they not let the stations themselves decide whether to use DAB or DAB+? Is it because they fear the stations would all en masse opt for DAB+ and leave listeners with older radios in the cold? That would hardly be a commercially sensible decision for most stations so not very likely.
Let's hope this is the case, and we wont end up with about thirty mono stations sounding like old tin boxes.
It's weird because it sounds inherently anti-competitive. If the whole multiplex could be used for DAB+ then it should allow more competition because transmission costs should be lower. By forcing stations either to use DAB (which everyone says is more expensive than DAB+), or to bid for limited DAB+ bandwidth, surely it artificially maintains higher transmission costs?
Or is that the point: Ofcom is introducing an anticompetitive clause into the licence to make it more likely to be profitable for the licence holder?
Still 30% could add 4 or 8 extra services (having a quick look at the Australia multiplexes on wohnort there’s a mixture of services using bit rates of between 40 and 80 not sure in what quality) so all is not lost.
They should have ruled that only 30% of a mux can be mono, but that DAB+ is up to the broadcaster to decide.
Considering DAB+ appears to be seen as having a future in the UK by the powers that be, I wonder if Ofcom might think it could be too successful too quickly. 30% means there is room for a number of good quality DAB+ stations but it wouldn't disenfranchise over 10 million people with a DAB-only radio.
Perhaps this is an easy-does-it approach for the benefit of listeners. A maximum of 30% now. In a few years when millions of new receivers supporting DAB+ have been sold (a million a year in cars alone) they might move to 60% or scrap it altogether.
It could also be an easy-does-it approach for the benefit of the infrastructure competition. If this second multiplex is not exploited by Arqiva this sudden pro-DAB+ change might hurt their business. By allowing Arqiva to adapt to the possibility of distributing DAB+ (they could now start offering stations a DAB+ slot using the 30% data clause) they guarantee that the market remains somewhat healthy.
So they'd upgrade their software to DAB+ if feasible, or they'd look for the Digital Tick when buying a new radio or a new car !
If a mux already has 30% DAB+, it prevents a potential new entrant launching a new DAB+ service. If they can't afford the additional expense to launch it on old inefficient DAB, then it simply won't happen.
Ofcom's 'light touch' means the audio quality is down to the broadcaster (and it will be down), yet there's an arbitrary limit on DAB+. It just doesn't make sense, but sense it not something associated with Ofcom.
Easy enough for me but would it be easy enough for everyone? Not to mention getting the message out there.
Fair enough. Perhaps I should have written "for the benefit of listeners with a DAB-only radio".
We shall see. I think nobody can really assess the demand for DAB+ capacity yet. You can survey existing stations about their DAB+ plans but you don't know how many people would be interested in starting a new station if national coverage suddenly becomes a lot cheaper thanks to DAB+. Not until it is actually available early next year.
Whether the 30% is reached within two months or not for another two years remains to be seen. Until the 30% is hit I'll hold my judgement about whether the cap made sense. I'm just trying to understand the various reasons Ofcom may have.
To assist the changeover, in many cases the main service could switch to stereo DAB+ with a 'twilight' DAB service (say 48kbit/s) keeping a lo-fi presence on older DAB-only radios for a while.
Have you read the technical code update document Ofcom published today? In it they acknowledge that all except one of the commentators wanted DAB+ at greater than 30% but have decided to keep the limit anyway, but with it being reviewed in 2018 which would allow the new national DAB multiplex to be on air.
to which Ofcom responded
I can certainly see why Bauer would want DAB+ as it would allow them to increase the areas with all their stations.
It will be interesting to see if any existing stations transfer to Digital 2 (either national or quasi-national) too.
In the UK I upgraded the software on my 2009 Pure Highway, expecting it to handle DAB+. However, in Australia it displayed the DAB+ station names but there was no audio. It also showed a message to visit the Pure website. It was then quite straightforward to get an unlocking code.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a44595/channel-4-ngw-bid-for-dab-multiplex.html#~oIMeR25tfTBcbS
E4 Radio (youthful interactive entertainment); Unlikely
Channel 4 Radio (contemporary public service speech); Unlikely
Pure4 (intelligent contemporary adult); Unlikely
Talk Radio (UTV - news, views and entertainment); possible
Closer (EMAP - female adult contemporary, celebrity and lifestyle); possible
Sky News Radio; possible
Sunrise Radio; Unlikely
Virgin Radio Viva (SMG - female-friendly pop with attitude); Unlikely
Original (CanWest - adult album alternative); Unlikely
Radio Disney.Unlikely
and podcast service Unlikely
But if Sky are closing Sky sports radio unlikely to put Sky radio news on DAB?
Also possible
Heat? Kerrang? in stereo?
Absolute 60's and 00's, Absolute 80s, to go back to stereo and make space on D1 for some D1 stations to go back to stereo?
Gold, Arrow and Chill in stereo?
UCB inspirational?
WS and Asian NW to create space on BBC mux
Jazz FM in stereo?
Return of Virgin UK in stereo?
It's difficult to see how the market is going to support another 14 national vanilla-DAB stations (mainly in mono).
Some of them could be the Absolute decade stations but I can't see where the others are coming from if they are relying on advertising to fund them.