LAS VEGAS – it’s easy to be on the sidelines and criticize where we are – or more precisely, aren’t – when it comes to digital radio.
The European standard we adopted in Canada, DAB, has gone nowhere here because radio station owners don’t want to spend to fully make the shift, stores weren’t selling the receivers, automakers chose to build-in satellite radio receivers instead – and consumers likely aren’t interested in upgrading their in-home and in-car devices, which they (rightly) figure are working just fine, thanks. And now, the lack of action on digital radio has led some to question why the spectrum should even be held for Canadian radio broadcasters. If they aren’t going to launch digital radio, let’s do something else with the spectrum, has been the pitch to Industry Canada, as we reported here.
The U.S., on the other hand, has pushed forward with its in-band on channel “HD Radio” standard, and its working, if not earning big bucks. Most of us north of the border figure this is the technology we will adopt, too. Eventually. They’re even doing a ton of work on HD Radio for AM stations here in the States as iBiquity’s John Detweiler showed NAB delegates today during a Broadcast Technology session on digital radio.
But after listening to part two of that digital radio session this morning (Sunday) outlining the mess that is European digital radio, one would be hard pressed to look past the reasons for the delays in digital radio adoption in Canada and tell radio station owners to hurry up.
Markus Ruoss, founder and owner of Ruoss AG is a consultant and radio station owner in Switzerland and his presentation outlined the massive challenge that is the digital radio conversion in Europe, which features 51 countries and 60,000 frequency allocations. Those numbers include 500 public broadcasters with about a 50% audience share, 2,500 private radio stations with a 35% share and then about 8,000 independent stations, he said.
And there sometimes appear to be as many opinions about how and when to carry out the digital radio transition. “What’s good for one could be an economic disaster for another,” said Ruoss.
Governments and regulators want stations to invest fully in digital transitions, private broadcasters want to do it cheaply, and advertisers want real listeners to real stations, not just technical coverage.
If you look at the world DMB site, noted Ruoss, “it looks like (Europe) is all perfect and happy with one family DMB solution.
“The real world looks very different,” he added.
He said there are 12 European countries with operating digital radio stations (none make money, though), eight countries with active trials, four with “interest” and 26 with nothing at all.
Many millions of Euros have been spent “without the necessary return on investment expected,” he said. “Profitability seems to be far away.”
Even the most touted example of digital radio success, the UK, is a problem. It’s best digital only radio station, Planet Rock, gets about a 0.5% share of listening, said Ruoss, quoting British Media analyst Grant Goddard. Click here for Goddard’s devastating look at the UK’s digital stations strategy.
And of the Digital Britain report which has called for the shut down of analog FM in 2015? “ridiculous, farcical and a complete fantasy,” said Ruoss.
There are multiple competing potential standards complicating decision-making, too (DAB+, DAB-IP, DMB, DVB-T, DVB-H, FMextra, HD Radio, DRM+, and RAVIS).
All the while, many wonder whether or not IP Radio, coupled with the availability of smartphones around the globe, just might render all this digital OTA argument moot. IP Radio has “far and away the highest number of digital receivers worldwide,” noted Ruoss, “but that’s not a success for traditional broadcasters.”
As in Canada, there is much ennui at the federal government level when it comes to forcing a change to digital, too. French culture minister Frederic Mitterand recently said that the conversion is “not a priority,” noted Ruoss.
He went on to call Spain’s DAB efforts “a fiasco” and decried those in the European radio community who look down their noses at US-backed HD Radio simply because “it was not invented here.”
“A single digital radio solution in Europe is unlikely and unwise,” he explained.
Ruoss backs (not surprisingly) the Swiss plan for digital radio where national public radio stations would adopt DAB+, leaving local stations with HD Radio. This year, for example, five private Swiss stations are going to offer HD Radio, covering major population centres of Bern, Basel and Zurich. Public broadcasters should jump to DAB “and leave the FM frequencies to the private broadcasters,” Ruoss continued.
However, he didn’t mention whether or not Swiss consumers will be able to easily purchase HD Radio receivers, or whether they’d maybe rather just get their local station on their BlackBerrys and iPhones…
Greg O’Brien is in Las Vegas this week for the National Association of Broadcasters annual convention. To comment or contact him, use the box below, follow him on Twitter (@gregobr) or e-mail him at editorial@cartt.ca.
