Berlin Troglodyte Exposed! Civilization Threatened!

Michael Hedges December 5, 2004

When the Berlin media regulator said it was dumping DAB, icy scorn rained down from WorldDAB.

Yum! Chips!

The Berlin-Brandenberg Media Authority (MABB) took the path less taken, and rarely spoken, and suggested moving on from DAB to “more up to date standards.”  In a report issued November 25th the MABB criticized everything from the technology, “from the ‘80’s” and “primarily for car reception,” to the political decision to develop it, “not in the interest of the consumer, who must finally pay.” The MABB has stopped issuing DAB licenses.

Any critic of digital anything is, of course, a troglodyte.

“The Media Authority for Berlin-Brandenberg is becoming more and more isolated from the rest of Europe and, indeed, the world…” was the reply in a press release from the World DAB Forum,

“It might have been wiser for the MABB to address the real issues with DAB in Germany,” said the press release, titled “DAB is here to stay!”

German state regulators in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg remain solidly behind DAB.

To further bury themselves in quicksand, MABB officials criticized subsidies for DAB development to both private and public sector broadcasters.    

A Prognos study, “Digital TV and Digital Radio 2008,” cited by the MABB, points out that 11% of German and Swiss households have digital television receivers, and fewer in Austria. Digital radio receivers in those countries, according to the report issued earlier in November, are “practically non-existent.”

The newish technologies comprising what’s generally referred to as digital radio have had a reasonably good year. In two foothold countries, Denmark and the UK, digital radio listening contributes significantly to overall radio listening increases.

While the Prognos report concentrates on German-speaking countries, it draws attention to the UK, digital radios “last glow of hope.” Citing over a million DAB receivers in the UK at the end of this year where digital radio reaches 30% of households, a figure not likely to be reached in Germany, according to the authors, before 2008. The difference between digital radio take up in the UK and Germany, the authors say, has everything to do with strategy, or lack thereof.

The “issue” not addressed according to WorldDAB and the “strategy” not applied in Germany according to Prognos is quite simple and quite the same. The BBC was forced to give up DAB exclusivity to secure the necessary support from commercial broadcasters. An effective and well-financed marketing and development strategy was forged from the common interest in moving digital radio forward. The “issue” perplexing DAB development in Germany is less the lack of one “strategy” but more the different and separate strategies of each German Länder.

Outside the UK, few such common strategies between the public and commercial sectors have materialized. Public broadcasters hogged all the multiplexes and commercial broadcasters sat – and largely continue to sit - on the sidelines.

One very notable exception is RTL, Europe’s 900-pound media gorilla.

RTLs digital strategy involves DRM, Digital Radio Mondiale, which delivers digital signals through existing long, medium and short wave frequency spectrum. The French RTL Radio currently broadcasts a DRM signal on short wave and plans are in place for the German language Radio Luxemburg to broadcast on medium and short wave in 2005.

But it was an article in Media Guardian (December 2) that hinted that RTL was ready to blast Radio Luxembourg into the UK in English, just like the ‘60’s when the station played the hits, jokes from DJs and commercials.

“It’s an idea we are exploring,” said RTL spokesperson Charlotte Devictor. RTL, successor to the original Radio Luxembourg, is neither nostalgic nor troglodyte.

“Clearly the DRM technology means that at some stage we could re-launch the station….but more medium to long term than something we are about to do.”

The example of RTL nearly makes the argument that scale of operation allows – if not requires – a longer view. The Berlin-Brandenberg regulator could well be taking a similar long view. In any view, digital is here to stay.