It won't be full of standalone digital stations, that's for sure. Planet Rock & Jazz FM have both made heavy losses as national DAB carriage has proved unaffordable, even at 64k mono.
Groups like Global, Bauer & UTV could use some of the capacity for spin-offs or simulcasts of FM stations (e.g. Kisstory, XFM, LBC), but are there enough of these to fill a whole multiplex? I doubt it - we don't even know if Digital 1 will still be full in January.
Let's have a look at the portfolios of Global and Bauer and ignore the stations where operation on local multiplexes is key for advertising and licence rollover (i.e. Capital, Heart, Place network, Magic AM)
1. LBC
2. Xfm
3. Gold
4. Kisstory
5. Kissfresh
6. Absolute Radio 60s
7. Absolute Radio 70s
8. Absolute Radio 00s
9. Kerrang!
10. Absolute Classic Rock
11. Magic 105.4
Well, that's enough to fill up the national multiplex before you even consider switching some services from mono to stereo not to mention the scope of additional spin-offs.
One thing that has been mentioned before is that some broadcasters already feel that Digital 1 has over stretched itself so it would not surprise me to find that the niche services (e.g. Jazz FM, UCB) switch to Digital 2 which limits coverage to the more built up parts of the country and Digital 1 goes fully national for the bigger players (at least in the medium term - perhaps going fully national once a DSO has happened and it becomes more viable).
Isn't this spare national frequency the key to a move to DAB+? Start it up with a handful of new services designed to appeal to a broad range of listeners and promote these heavily to encourage takeup of DAB+ sets. Then after a few years announce (with plenty of advance notice) the conversion of other DAB services to DAB+. Maybe delay any analogue switch off until this point so it can all be done in one clean move probably sometime in the early 2020s - it might well not happen until then anyway.
The problem of-course will be persuading operators to start new services which have no chance of showing a profit for quite a while, but for existing players the incentive could be reduced carriage costs when the existing DAB muxs are converted so that they then have more capacity.
+1 - a perfect opportunity to start the transition to DAB+. Surely it's now or never.
Digital technology never stands still. The UK broadcasting industry is trying to make it do that, by continuing with a system first trialled by the BBC in September 1995 ( according to Wikipedia ). The same article infers that by switching from 64 k/bits DAB to 64 k/bits DAB+ the “jukebox stations” as someone on this forum recently described them, can go from mono to stereo. Oh by the way, how often IS it important that what you hear is in stereo ?
An people in the Stoke area, who I came to respect for their no-nonsense observations during my time at Kidsgrove, tell us that reception is patchy at best and there is very little worth listening to anyway. Extension of 3G to 4G, by EE in particular, an organisation who make no bones about their overriding priority of getting everyone on a “plan”, will help in that if Stoke people want to be enterprising, they could have their own internet radio stations.
We were told in late summer 2013 in Radio User magazine that since 2009, all quality DAB radios have had a USB socket to flash the firmware from DAB to DAB+ ( or hopefully a similar encoding ). Indeed, Wikipedia tells us that 2007 was when the first DAB+ transmissions were made in Europe.
What can we as consumers do ? Only buy a digital radio that can be firmware-upgraded to DAB+ or similar.
What can we do as communities ? Investigate internet stations run by us with good programme content, and take an interest in good conventional local radio ( such as we have in the Marches area ).
What can manufacturers do ? Provide us with soft-centred hardware, i.e. SDR ( Software Defined Radio ) to stop junking the planet so fast that Professor Stephen Hawking recently warned that we've got 1,000 years left – that's 10 human generations in the Western world, which isn't many...
What can Ofcom do ? Realise that as I said, digital technology doesn't stand still. A twenty-year-old encoding system is too old. Antique. Old hat. As a start, make any digital switchover based on DAB+ encoding, but have a planned upgrade forecast from that.
What can the national commercial companies do ? Who cares ! Their programmes are total rubbish. Those of you who listen to them, regularly complain about them on this forum. People who I talk to in local radio say much the same thing. Just stop listening to them. They can eventually change if they want to.
According to your posts above, the national commercial companies are in total control of what digital multiplexes are broadcasting, what encoding they use, and what we are allowed to hear on them. No wonder UK national radio is in such a mess. No wonder that it causes such heated debate on this forum.
These situations will only change for the better, giving us consumers ( or “stakeholders” as Ofcom call us ) stimulating national commercial radio, when Ofcom stops “negotiating” and starts taking a lead – where ARE you, Ofcom ?.....
These situations will only change for the better, giving us consumers ( or “stakeholders” as Ofcom call us ) stimulating national commercial radio, when Ofcom stops “negotiating” and starts taking a lead – where ARE you, Ofcom ?.....
The current Ofcom rules permit 30% of every multiplex to be filled with DAB+ stations if commercial stations choose to use it. What kind of lead are you asking them to take? Are you asking them to force commercial stations to adopt a codec today which isn't receivable on 10 million DAB radios in homes and workplaces?
Ofcom are not responsible for the BBC's DAB technical standards, and Alix Pryde has already said she doesn't expect their existing stations to switch to DAB+ for several years.
BTW I don't think every programme on Classic FM & Absolute is "total rubbish" but you're entitled to your opinion.
What can Ofcom do ? Realise that as I said, digital technology doesn't stand still. A twenty-year-old encoding system is too old. Antique. Old hat. As a start, make any digital switchover based on DAB+ encoding, but have a planned upgrade forecast from that.
MPEG layer 2 is still in use on DVD and SD broadcast TVs so will be around for several years. It has become improved with the latest software encoders form Coding Technologies/Dolby.
R3 is ok at 192k, most stations are ok at 128k, a new national mux will allow one BBC service to be moved so R2 can go 160k? And also if some D1 stations are moved to D2 existing D1 stations could go 128k stereo?
D2 with extra space will allow new stations to go DAB+ when more DAB+ sets are in use.
a new national mux will allow one BBC service to be moved so R2 can go 160k? And also if some D1 stations are moved to D2 existing D1 stations could go 128k stereo?
D2 with extra space will allow new stations to go DAB+ when more DAB+ sets are in use.
I can't see more stations going to 128k stereo unfortunately. I think we'll see more stations on at a low bitrate in order to keep the cost per station down.
This is where DAB+ could actually help the broadcasters in the long run that the bandwidth used per station could be even lower today with the sound quality no worse (and possibly better) than today- with stereo viable in some cases.
Now the regional multiplexs in England and Wales are closed and there is a cleared frequency in Scotland, maybe they might revisit that idea depending on what frequencies are reallocated to local multiplexs?
I could see Kiss and Smooth moving across to such a multiplex. Maybe even Classic and talkSPORT who offer advertisers macro regions and Bauer due to Planet Rock and Absolute's FM areas.
The current Ofcom rules permit 30% of every multiplex to be filled with DAB+ stations if commercial stations choose to use it. What kind of lead are you asking them to take? Are you asking them to force commercial stations to adopt a codec today which isn't receivable on 10 million DAB radios in homes and workplaces?
Ofcom are not responsible for the BBC's DAB technical standards, and Alix Pryde has already said she doesn't expect their existing stations to switch to DAB+ for several years.
I suggested previously, though no one seemed to agree, that the radio industry should negotiate a deal with major retailers (eg supermarket chains, John Lewis, maybe Amazon) to sell a DAB+ compatible radio at cost in exchange for advertising airtime. The combination of economies of scale and maybe some belt-tightening in order to make the set affordable could mean that enough sets would be sold to make a DAB+ switchover viable. Does anyone think it could be the way forward?
I suggested previously, though no one seemed to agree, that the radio industry should negotiate a deal with major retailers (eg supermarket chains, John Lewis, maybe Amazon) to sell a DAB+ compatible radio at cost in exchange for advertising airtime. The combination of economies of scale and maybe some belt-tightening in order to make the set affordable could mean that enough sets would be sold to make a DAB+ switchover viable. Does anyone think it could be the way forward?
The radio stations already pay a levy for DAB promotion.
I notice that Asda and Sainsburys have been promoting their respective Polaroid (£20)and Red (£29) DAB (maybe DAB+?) radio brands in ads in Newspapers. This would be as presents?
Wonder if the price was reduced even further with a subsidy if sales would increase even more.
From a quick look at the Pure web site it appears that they are still not including DAB+ in many of their radios for the UK market, so most people buying or receiving a Pure DAB radio this Christmas would not be able to get DAB+ were it to be adopted in the future.
Pure said:
All Pure Internet radios support the playback of DAB+. If you are in a country that broadcasts DAB+ then - providing you are running the latest software on your radio - your radio will be ready to play.
If you select a radio on their web site and click on the "specifications" tab it usually says:
UK products receive DAB/FM; non-UK products receive DAB/DAB+/DMB-Radio/FM
That implies that the models sold in the UK will not receive DAB+. I bought the Pure Move 400D to take on holiday and its specification is different:
Digital (DAB/DAB+/DMB-Radio) and FM
because it is intended to be used outside the UK. Given that this is an important issue for the future of radio in the UK it would be stupid for Pure to misrepresent the spec of their radios.
If you select a radio on their web site and click on the "specifications" tab it usually says:
UK products receive DAB/FM; non-UK products receive DAB/DAB+/DMB-Radio/FM
That implies that the models sold in the UK will not receive DAB+.
They may well already have the ability to receive DAB+, but this option will be crippled for products sold in the UK.
That's certainly the case for the Pure Highway. Mine dates back to 2008 or 2009, and a few years later I upgraded the software to a DAB+ compatible version free of charge.
However, I subsequently found that a code was needed to unlock the DAB+ facility. That was straightforward and also free of charge, although it helped that I was in Australia at the time.
So I'd hope and expect that most digital radios purchased in the UK in the last few years would be upgradable when DAB+ starts in the UK.
Would D2 be using the frequencies formerly used by the regional muxs or is that reserved for something else?
Just wondering because if I recall when 4 Digital won the license a few years back there already was a frequency set aside that would be the same across the country (11A I think?)
Would D2 be using the frequencies formerly used by the regional muxs or is that reserved for something else?
Just wondering because if I recall when 4 Digital won the license a few years back there already was a frequency set aside that would be the same across the country (11A I think?)
The regional frequencies are already being re-used to open up new local muxes (Hereford and Worcester is on 12A, which was West Midlands).
Would D2 be using the frequencies formerly used by the regional muxs or is that reserved for something else?
Just wondering because if I recall when 4 Digital won the license a few years back there already was a frequency set aside that would be the same across the country (11A I think?)
Does anyone know what the latest is on D2. I read somewhere that it has been pushed back to 2016.
Does anyone know what the latest is on D2. I read somewhere that it has been pushed back to 2016.
The applications deadline is 29 January 2015.
Once the licence is awarded (usually around three months later) they have two years to get on air, so 2016 isn't an unreasonable guess (Digital One was on air (15/11/1999) just over a year after licence award (08/11/1998)) but was due on air a bit earlier.
Assuming a late April 2015 award an early 2016 air date isn't unreasonable (although with the capacity constraints on Digital 1 it wouldn't surprise me if the licencee tries to be on air quicker in some areas - e.g. if Bauer won it perhaps they'll start roll out in the Midlands to extend there services already available on local multiplexes in the North and London. The applications at the end of January will give us a better idea.)
Would D2 be using the frequencies formerly used by the regional muxs or is that reserved for something else?
Just wondering because if I recall when 4 Digital won the license a few years back there already was a frequency set aside that would be the same across the country (11A I think?)
Once the licence is awarded (usually around three months later) they have two years to get on air, so 2016 isn't an unreasonable guess (Digital One was on air (15/11/1999) just over a year after licence award (08/11/1998)) but was due on air a bit earlier.
Assuming a late April 2015 award an early 2016 air date isn't unreasonable (although with the capacity constraints on Digital 1 it wouldn't surprise me if the licencee tries to be on air quicker in some areas - e.g. if Bauer won it perhaps they'll start roll out in the Midlands to extend there services already available on local multiplexes in the North and London. The applications at the end of January will give us a better idea.)
So perhaps the bid or bids will be public in a few days time?
Premier and Global's Heart extra are still fighting over Premier's slot on D1 when it's contract expires March.
It could be some of the ex MXR kit might still be in place at some sites so areas like Birmingham, Manchester so if retuned to 11A might perhaps be able go live 2015?
If UTV are still involved (after the announcement it is selling local stations) the Switch digital central Scotland mux has capacity for some of the new services?
Let's have a look at the portfolios of Global and Bauer and ignore the stations where operation on local multiplexes is key for advertising and licence rollover (i.e. Capital, Heart, Place network, Magic AM)
1. LBC
2. Xfm
3. Gold
4. Kisstory
5. Kissfresh
6. Absolute Radio 60s
7. Absolute Radio 70s
8. Absolute Radio 00s
9. Kerrang!
10. Absolute Classic Rock
11. Magic 105.4
Well, that's enough to fill up the national multiplex before you even consider switching some services from mono to stereo not to mention the scope of additional spin-offs.
One thing that has been mentioned before is that some broadcasters already feel that Digital 1 has over stretched itself so it would not surprise me to find that the niche services (e.g. Jazz FM, UCB) switch to Digital 2 which limits coverage to the more built up parts of the country and Digital 1 goes fully national for the bigger players (at least in the medium term - perhaps going fully national once a DSO has happened and it becomes more viable).
Might get Talksport 2?
The recent changes perhaps mean some stations will not make it to D2?
Kerrang and XFM will depend if "modern rock" is still seen as appealing to young people otherwise they will stay on Freeview, internet and some local muxes?
Might get Talksport 2?
The recent changes perhaps mean some stations will not make it to D2?
Kerrang and XFM will depend if "modern rock" is still seen as appealing to young people otherwise they will stay on Freeview, internet and some local muxes?
Wouldn't mind The Arrow and Chill on D2
I'm wondering if Magic will replace Absolute spin offs - Magic Gold (instead of Abs 60s & Abs 70s) Magic 80s (instead of Abs 80s)
Comments
Let's have a look at the portfolios of Global and Bauer and ignore the stations where operation on local multiplexes is key for advertising and licence rollover (i.e. Capital, Heart, Place network, Magic AM)
1. LBC
2. Xfm
3. Gold
4. Kisstory
5. Kissfresh
6. Absolute Radio 60s
7. Absolute Radio 70s
8. Absolute Radio 00s
9. Kerrang!
10. Absolute Classic Rock
11. Magic 105.4
Well, that's enough to fill up the national multiplex before you even consider switching some services from mono to stereo not to mention the scope of additional spin-offs.
One thing that has been mentioned before is that some broadcasters already feel that Digital 1 has over stretched itself so it would not surprise me to find that the niche services (e.g. Jazz FM, UCB) switch to Digital 2 which limits coverage to the more built up parts of the country and Digital 1 goes fully national for the bigger players (at least in the medium term - perhaps going fully national once a DSO has happened and it becomes more viable).
+1 - a perfect opportunity to start the transition to DAB+. Surely it's now or never.
An people in the Stoke area, who I came to respect for their no-nonsense observations during my time at Kidsgrove, tell us that reception is patchy at best and there is very little worth listening to anyway. Extension of 3G to 4G, by EE in particular, an organisation who make no bones about their overriding priority of getting everyone on a “plan”, will help in that if Stoke people want to be enterprising, they could have their own internet radio stations.
We were told in late summer 2013 in Radio User magazine that since 2009, all quality DAB radios have had a USB socket to flash the firmware from DAB to DAB+ ( or hopefully a similar encoding ). Indeed, Wikipedia tells us that 2007 was when the first DAB+ transmissions were made in Europe.
What can we as consumers do ? Only buy a digital radio that can be firmware-upgraded to DAB+ or similar.
What can we do as communities ? Investigate internet stations run by us with good programme content, and take an interest in good conventional local radio ( such as we have in the Marches area ).
What can manufacturers do ? Provide us with soft-centred hardware, i.e. SDR ( Software Defined Radio ) to stop junking the planet so fast that Professor Stephen Hawking recently warned that we've got 1,000 years left – that's 10 human generations in the Western world, which isn't many...
What can Ofcom do ? Realise that as I said, digital technology doesn't stand still. A twenty-year-old encoding system is too old. Antique. Old hat. As a start, make any digital switchover based on DAB+ encoding, but have a planned upgrade forecast from that.
What can the national commercial companies do ? Who cares ! Their programmes are total rubbish. Those of you who listen to them, regularly complain about them on this forum. People who I talk to in local radio say much the same thing. Just stop listening to them. They can eventually change if they want to.
According to your posts above, the national commercial companies are in total control of what digital multiplexes are broadcasting, what encoding they use, and what we are allowed to hear on them. No wonder UK national radio is in such a mess. No wonder that it causes such heated debate on this forum.
These situations will only change for the better, giving us consumers ( or “stakeholders” as Ofcom call us ) stimulating national commercial radio, when Ofcom stops “negotiating” and starts taking a lead – where ARE you, Ofcom ?.....
The current Ofcom rules permit 30% of every multiplex to be filled with DAB+ stations if commercial stations choose to use it. What kind of lead are you asking them to take? Are you asking them to force commercial stations to adopt a codec today which isn't receivable on 10 million DAB radios in homes and workplaces?
Ofcom are not responsible for the BBC's DAB technical standards, and Alix Pryde has already said she doesn't expect their existing stations to switch to DAB+ for several years.
BTW I don't think every programme on Classic FM & Absolute is "total rubbish" but you're entitled to your opinion.
R3 is ok at 192k, most stations are ok at 128k, a new national mux will allow one BBC service to be moved so R2 can go 160k? And also if some D1 stations are moved to D2 existing D1 stations could go 128k stereo?
D2 with extra space will allow new stations to go DAB+ when more DAB+ sets are in use.
I can't see more stations going to 128k stereo unfortunately. I think we'll see more stations on at a low bitrate in order to keep the cost per station down.
This is where DAB+ could actually help the broadcasters in the long run that the bandwidth used per station could be even lower today with the sound quality no worse (and possibly better) than today- with stereo viable in some cases.
https://twitter.com/johnmyersteam/status/407216218026680320
It was because the Digital Economy Act did not include legalisation to grant Ofcom powers to roll the regional multiplexs into a national one.
Points 3.44 and 3.45
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/radio/statement/Localness_statement.pdf
Now the regional multiplexs in England and Wales are closed and there is a cleared frequency in Scotland, maybe they might revisit that idea depending on what frequencies are reallocated to local multiplexs?
I could see Kiss and Smooth moving across to such a multiplex. Maybe even Classic and talkSPORT who offer advertisers macro regions and Bauer due to Planet Rock and Absolute's FM areas.
I suggested previously, though no one seemed to agree, that the radio industry should negotiate a deal with major retailers (eg supermarket chains, John Lewis, maybe Amazon) to sell a DAB+ compatible radio at cost in exchange for advertising airtime. The combination of economies of scale and maybe some belt-tightening in order to make the set affordable could mean that enough sets would be sold to make a DAB+ switchover viable. Does anyone think it could be the way forward?
I notice that Asda and Sainsburys have been promoting their respective Polaroid (£20)and Red (£29) DAB (maybe DAB+?) radio brands in ads in Newspapers. This would be as presents?
Wonder if the price was reduced even further with a subsidy if sales would increase even more.
http://support.pure.com/kb_article.php?ref=2707-QAGB-4194
If you select a radio on their web site and click on the "specifications" tab it usually says:
UK products receive DAB/FM; non-UK products receive DAB/DAB+/DMB-Radio/FM
That implies that the models sold in the UK will not receive DAB+. I bought the Pure Move 400D to take on holiday and its specification is different:
Digital (DAB/DAB+/DMB-Radio) and FM
because it is intended to be used outside the UK. Given that this is an important issue for the future of radio in the UK it would be stupid for Pure to misrepresent the spec of their radios.
That's certainly the case for the Pure Highway. Mine dates back to 2008 or 2009, and a few years later I upgraded the software to a DAB+ compatible version free of charge.
However, I subsequently found that a code was needed to unlock the DAB+ facility. That was straightforward and also free of charge, although it helped that I was in Australia at the time.
So I'd hope and expect that most digital radios purchased in the UK in the last few years would be upgradable when DAB+ starts in the UK.
Just wondering because if I recall when 4 Digital won the license a few years back there already was a frequency set aside that would be the same across the country (11A I think?)
The regional frequencies are already being re-used to open up new local muxes (Hereford and Worcester is on 12A, which was West Midlands).
11A was not used as a regional frequency.
So far, no takers.
Its a separate issue but im amazed RTE haven't bagged this.
Does anyone know what the latest is on D2. I read somewhere that it has been pushed back to 2016.
The applications deadline is 29 January 2015.
Once the licence is awarded (usually around three months later) they have two years to get on air, so 2016 isn't an unreasonable guess (Digital One was on air (15/11/1999) just over a year after licence award (08/11/1998)) but was due on air a bit earlier.
Assuming a late April 2015 award an early 2016 air date isn't unreasonable (although with the capacity constraints on Digital 1 it wouldn't surprise me if the licencee tries to be on air quicker in some areas - e.g. if Bauer won it perhaps they'll start roll out in the Midlands to extend there services already available on local multiplexes in the North and London. The applications at the end of January will give us a better idea.)
It is indeed the previous 4Digital frequency.
Premier and Global's Heart extra are still fighting over Premier's slot on D1 when it's contract expires March.
It could be some of the ex MXR kit might still be in place at some sites so areas like Birmingham, Manchester so if retuned to 11A might perhaps be able go live 2015?
If UTV are still involved (after the announcement it is selling local stations) the Switch digital central Scotland mux has capacity for some of the new services?
The recent changes perhaps mean some stations will not make it to D2?
Kerrang and XFM will depend if "modern rock" is still seen as appealing to young people otherwise they will stay on Freeview, internet and some local muxes?
Wouldn't mind The Arrow and Chill on D2
I'm wondering if Magic will replace Absolute spin offs - Magic Gold (instead of Abs 60s & Abs 70s) Magic 80s (instead of Abs 80s)
Heart 00s
Heart 90s
Heart 80s
Smooth 60s
Smooth 70s
Smooth 80s
Smooth 90s
Smooth 00s
Gold 30s
Gold 40s
Gold 50s
Gold 60s
Gold 70s
Capital Dance
Capital Rap
LBC Sport
LBC Politics
Something like that? Global just don't have enough radio stations out there presently.