Wonder if they'll give Planet Rock their channel back so they can broadcast in stereo again? DAB surely a dying technology now, I listen to most of my radio via internet stream, but it is nice to have DAB in the car... sounds hideous in mono, though..!
The DAB digital radio capacity used by TeamRock has already been contracted to a replacement station which will launch later in 2015. Details of that station are currently confidential.
Wonder if they'll give Planet Rock their channel back so they can broadcast in stereo again? DAB surely a dying technology now, I listen to most of my radio via internet stream, but it is nice to have DAB in the car... sounds hideous in mono, though..!
Planet rock are due to move to D2 when it starts up so I'd say not.
Most of it is shite though. So it's like finding a diamond in a vat of slurry.
Going on DAB and promotion in the Magazines helped Teamrock got a good profile with rock fans, but the no ad policy of Teamrock meant being unable to get revenue to pay for distribution. However with the last 2 years promotion means the website and podcasts will get a decent amount of downloads.
Bauer could have closed loss making Planetrock but does look like it will remain on. DAB for several years to come even if with lower coverage on D2?
The DAB digital radio capacity used by TeamRock has already been contracted to a replacement station which will launch later in 2015. Details of that station are currently confidential.
With TeamRock leaving in the coming months and Planet Rock eventually moving to D2 do D1 not have some sort of obligation or commitment to have a national Rock station on the national mux? Cause in that case Heart Extra would hardly be a worthy replacement!
TeamRock was always going at some point. It was effectively a two year advert. It is going to be interesting to see how "downloads with music" develops over the next couple of years (presumably with DRM as the BBC will eventually offer) - that could be very interesting in-car as a DAB alternative.
Ali makes a good point. Digital 1 is now going to be lacking any rock output (Absolute doesn't really count). While OFCOM are right to allow flexibility where there is a surplus of supply, it seems odd that they'd accept that Heart Extra does not negatively impact on range of service.
With TeamRock leaving in the coming months and Planet Rock eventually moving to D2 do D1 not have some sort of obligation or commitment to have a national Rock station on the national mux? Cause in that case Heart Extra would hardly be a worthy replacement!
When Planet Rock moves from D1 to D2 I think Global may acquire the space and launch XFM Extra and also launch Gold nationally.
So they will be an indie rock station possibly on Digital One but sadly no Classic Rock station but if launch Global launch Gold on Digital One it will be unique as there is no other Classic Pop / Rock nationally that focus on playing music just from the 60's, 70's and 80's.
With TeamRock leaving in the coming months and Planet Rock eventually moving to D2 do D1 not have some sort of obligation or commitment to have a national Rock station on the national mux? Cause in that case Heart Extra would hardly be a worthy replacement!
In preparing this analysis, Sound Digital noted that the line-up of digital sound programme services carried on Digital One as enclosed within Ofcom’s licence advertisement has since undergone a number of revisions. These included the addition of Smooth Extra and Magic, and the removal of Absolute Radio 90s / Absolute Radio Extra. We also noted that the service labelled “TBA” featuring music from the 70s, 80s and early 90s is not currently present. Sound Digital decided to address this by considering the distinctiveness of its line-up both against the Annex of Digital One services enclosed within Ofcom’s advert, and also against new services which have launched on the multiplex since the advert was published. A consequence of this approach is that the distinctiveness of our line-up is if anything slightly understated. In addition, Sound Digital notes that the inclusion of Planet Rock, Premier Christian Radio and Absolute Radio 80s within our line-up effectively duplicates the current availability of these services on the existing national multiplex. Although some of Sound Digital's partners are involved in discussions about how these changes affect Digital One's line-up, Sound Digital itself is not. Sound Digital's assumption is that any capacity vacated on Digital One would be reallocated to alternative service providers. Therefore Sound Digital considers that the transfer of Planet Rock, Premier Christian Radio and Absolute Radio 80s to the new multiplex would support a further future extension in the choice of distinct national digital radio services available in the UK.
Planet Rock is proposing to migrate from its current home on Digital One to the Sound Digital multiplex. Sound Digital understands that Bauer will write to Ofcom to explain the rationale for this move.
This letter has not been published, the application was written before Team rock announced they were leaving, but if Bauer say it is for financial reasons and as Planet rock has been making losses for several years, and going on D2 is more cost effective, then Ofcom will probably not be able to force Planet rock to remain on D1, even if it leaves D1 , and a lot of DAB listeners without D2, without a rock service? ( but Absolute will stay which has some rock)
It is going to be interesting to see how "downloads with music" develops over the next couple of years (presumably with DRM as the BBC will eventually offer) - that could be very interesting in-car as a DAB alternative.
If digital rights management can be built into Android and ios radio apps, from what team rock and 7 digital (formally UBC who used to run Classic Gold and also produce some BBC programmes) are saying could be very soon (rather than the current on demand streaming), it would overcome the current music restrictions in podcasts as more cars and phone apps get a 3g/4g connected download and play "car mode" facility.
It will be seen as a complement to DAB and FM by some broadcasters rather than an alternative.
Maybe Bauer could take place of TeamRock for Kerrang! ?
From it's strategy posted last year it is concentrating on just Absolute, Magic and Kiss as main national brands and these are the 3 to stay on D1 in mono and stereo just in London (from the D2 bid will be nationally DAB mono till use of stereo DAB+ in the UK is more used, no timescale).
Presumably Bauer will have extra costs with D2 and under pressure to provide profits for it's owners so secondary stations like Planet rock, Abs 80s, Kisstory and Kerrang will have limited digital distribution to reduce distribution costs, but will be on digital TV and internet.
TeamRock have put a couple of clips on Facebook/Soundcloud from this morning's breakfast show about talking about the changes and some of the comments they've had.
This letter has not been published, the application was written before Team rock announced they were leaving, but if Bauer say it is for financial reasons and as Planet rock has been making losses for several years, and going on D2 is more cost effective, then Ofcom will probably not be able to force Planet rock to remain on D1, even if it leaves D1 , and a lot of DAB listeners without D2, without a rock service? ( but Absolute will stay which has some rock)
My understanding of the mention in the D2 application regarding the stations leaving D1 for the new national mux is that they would be replaced with new stations of a similar format, assuming not from Bauer but from other providers. So if Planet Rock leaves perhaps a new classic rock station would be found to replace it, and the same with a new religious station to replace Premier and something suitable to replace Absolute 80's.
I accept that could quite possibly not be the case but its what I took from the application. But I always thought that there was some form of agreement between the operators of D1 and Ofcom as to which stations appear on the main national mux, and a rock one would be one of them as it has been present since the initial award of the licence.
Maybe Bauer could take place of TeamRock for Kerrang! ?
Kerrang! would be the perfect replacement for TeamRock, but considering Bauer seem to be moving their other stations to D2 for cost reasons I would greatly doubt this. However there was mention of a 'Modern Rock' station or something to that effect that was proposed but never named on the application from Listen2Digital, so it very possible whoever was behind that is keen to get their station on DAB and could make an appearance on D1?
From it's strategy posted last year it is concentrating on just Absolute, Magic and Kiss as main national brands and these are the 3 to stay on D1 in mono and stereo just in London (from the D2 bid will be nationally DAB mono till use of stereo DAB+ in the UK is more used, no timescale).
Presumably Bauer will have extra costs with D2 and under pressure to provide profits for it's owners so secondary stations like Planet rock, Abs 80s, Kisstory and Kerrang will have limited digital distribution to reduce distribution costs, but will be on digital TV and internet.
Maybe, but that was in time when TeamRock was on D1. Now is chance for Bauer to takeover all hard rock fans. I know it's less possible, but ...
The problem for all radio/media groups is they struggle to sell advertising for rock based stations, there answer to this problem is to make the music safe, this is the polar opposite of what the listeners want, Teamrock tried to solve the problem using a different funding model, but the DAB solution was only ever meant to be a temporary measure, there is no doubt the future of music delivery will be via the Internet, unfortunately the current infrastructure is not yet up to the job and data is still too expensive on mobile networks, it's a brave move that will undoubtedly cost them a lot of listeners in the short term, if they're truly are in this long term though ( and I believe they are ) then eventually such a move will pay off.
Comments
http://radiotoday.co.uk/2015/04/teamrock-to-leave-national-digital-radio/
Another DAB station gone. Is it really the future?
With the superiority of audio streams over mono DAB, within five years I can see DAB radio becoming the Betamax or 8 Track of radio listening.
So does internet radio.....even more so
Most of it is shite though. So it's like finding a diamond in a vat of slurry.
No different to the shite we have to wade through on FM but point taken
http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/news/display.asp?searchnews=&year=&id=1411
Heart Extra?
Planet rock are due to move to D2 when it starts up so I'd say not.
Bauer could have closed loss making Planetrock but does look like it will remain on. DAB for several years to come even if with lower coverage on D2?
With TeamRock leaving in the coming months and Planet Rock eventually moving to D2 do D1 not have some sort of obligation or commitment to have a national Rock station on the national mux? Cause in that case Heart Extra would hardly be a worthy replacement!
Ali makes a good point. Digital 1 is now going to be lacking any rock output (Absolute doesn't really count). While OFCOM are right to allow flexibility where there is a surplus of supply, it seems odd that they'd accept that Heart Extra does not negatively impact on range of service.
When Planet Rock moves from D1 to D2 I think Global may acquire the space and launch XFM Extra and also launch Gold nationally.
So they will be an indie rock station possibly on Digital One but sadly no Classic Rock station but if launch Global launch Gold on Digital One it will be unique as there is no other Classic Pop / Rock nationally that focus on playing music just from the 60's, 70's and 80's.
http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/radio/digital/nationalradio/SoundDigital.pdf This letter has not been published, the application was written before Team rock announced they were leaving, but if Bauer say it is for financial reasons and as Planet rock has been making losses for several years, and going on D2 is more cost effective, then Ofcom will probably not be able to force Planet rock to remain on D1, even if it leaves D1 , and a lot of DAB listeners without D2, without a rock service? ( but Absolute will stay which has some rock)
It will be seen as a complement to DAB and FM by some broadcasters rather than an alternative.
Presumably Bauer will have extra costs with D2 and under pressure to provide profits for it's owners so secondary stations like Planet rock, Abs 80s, Kisstory and Kerrang will have limited digital distribution to reduce distribution costs, but will be on digital TV and internet.
Fair play to them being quite open about this.
My understanding of the mention in the D2 application regarding the stations leaving D1 for the new national mux is that they would be replaced with new stations of a similar format, assuming not from Bauer but from other providers. So if Planet Rock leaves perhaps a new classic rock station would be found to replace it, and the same with a new religious station to replace Premier and something suitable to replace Absolute 80's.
I accept that could quite possibly not be the case but its what I took from the application. But I always thought that there was some form of agreement between the operators of D1 and Ofcom as to which stations appear on the main national mux, and a rock one would be one of them as it has been present since the initial award of the licence.
Kerrang! would be the perfect replacement for TeamRock, but considering Bauer seem to be moving their other stations to D2 for cost reasons I would greatly doubt this. However there was mention of a 'Modern Rock' station or something to that effect that was proposed but never named on the application from Listen2Digital, so it very possible whoever was behind that is keen to get their station on DAB and could make an appearance on D1?
http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/radio/mux-variations/2015/D1_TeamRock_March_2015_V1.pdf
I wonder if Birdsong will return to fill the gap between July and September
Maybe, but that was in time when TeamRock was on D1. Now is chance for Bauer to takeover all hard rock fans. I know it's less possible, but ...