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The great FM radio switch-off: Don't Panic!

The media's media dept got Carter completely wrong

Digital Britain Media sections of newspapers are usually the weakest, and you can guess the reasons why. It's an institutional thing. Because of a gentleperson's agreement that they'll never dish the dirt on each other, the real stories are buried - you'll be lucky if the occasional one washes up in Private Eye.

Nor is it a hindrance if a reporter understands neither business or technology; you can still be a media expert, and one day, most correspondents dream of one day being a media executive. Or at least a consultant. So, naturally, the Emperor is always wearing the finest threads.

But rarely have the massed ranks of Media Correspondents ever got it so badly wrong as they did with the radio this week.

Radio analyst Grant Goddard points out that contrary to media reports, there's no mention of an analogue switch-off in the Carter report, and no edict to close down analogue transmission. It's merely an inference, based on some wishful thinking. Carter has kicked the radio crisis back onto the industry. As one broadcaster told us:

"The attitude is a plague on all your houses, it's sort your shit out. It's not really our problem. Radio is left with a lot of problems unresolved, but the key thing is there's no money to pay for any of the goals."

So why were we reading about the largest mass obsolescence of technology ever seen in Britain this week? Let's have another look at what Lord Carter's report really said.

In paragraph 9 of Chapter 3b ("Radio Going Digital") the report states:

At the heart of our vision is the delivery of a Digital Radio Upgrade programme by the end of 2015.

OK, that's a target date for the achievement of an aspiration. But what's he aspiring to, exactly?

On that date all services carried on the national and local DAB multiplexes will cease broadcasting on analogue. At the same time, a new tier of ultra local radio... will occupy the vacated FM spectrum. Radio services will either upgrade to DAB or if they are within the ultra-local tier, to FM. This will deliver an upgrade from FM to DAB and from MW to FM.

That's clear enough. Carter wants major broadcasters off analogue. He wants a date - his own preferred is 31/12/2015 - and he wants this date (whatever it may be - note the uncertainty already creeping into the details) to be announced two years ahead of time. But he points out that this should only be approved if he criteria set out by the DRWG (Digital Radio Working Group) has been met. Which is:

  • 50 per cent of listening is digital [not the same as DAB, note]
  • DAB is comparable to FM coverage, and local DAB reaches 90 per cent of all population, and all major roads.

This may or may not happen in time for that aspirational end-of-2015 date, we'll return to that in a moment.

Then there's a scary threat to terminate licences - inviting us to infer that any analogue hold outs will be hunted down, rounded up and shot. In Paragraph 43 Carter states:

"... we will introduce new legislation which will insert a two-year termination clause into all new licences."

And Paragraph 44 appears to reiterate the same point:

"If by the end of 2013 it is clear the Digital Upgrade timetable will not be achieved, we will use the powers, set out above, to terminate licences and the existing licensing regimes will apply"

But to understand this, you need an insight into the complex and expensive way Ofcom grants radio licences.

There are four tiers of license, all fixed-term, and varying slightly in the fundamentals. But what most share in common is an incentive - a bribe or sweetener, if you prefer - for analogue broadcasters to adopt DAB. When licences come up for renewal, either a sealed bid auction or a beauty pageant determines the winner. (They can also be traded, but let's leave that to one side). Ofcom promised automatic renewal of the analogue licence if the broadcaster took up a DAB license.

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