The Fate Of Digital Radio Remains Unclear

Michael Hedges June 10, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Digital radio was quick out of the starting blocks a decade ago, which seems like a century. Regional arguments aside, standards and platforms issues were easily solved. As the race was run, the course changed. Now nobody can find the finish line.

Digital radio on the DAB and DAB+ platforms has moved, tepidly, from the testing phase to fully authorized broadcasting but only in the Czech capital Prague and Pribram, about 60 km to the south-west. Local multiplex owner Teleko was awarded a regional build-out concession for both Band III and L-band digital radio in 2009. At present, only the L-band multiplex operates because Band III is still occupied by analogue television.

Czech public radio (CRo) offers six channels, several exclusively digital. Also on the Teleko multiplex is non-commercial religious channel Radio Proglas. Private commercial broadcasters in the Czech Republic have largely ignored digital platforms, the exception for web streaming.

The major broadcast infrastructure provider, Ceske Radiokomunikace (CRa), opened DAB trials in 1999 for 18 months, which telecom regulator CTU renewed in 2005 for 30 days. Three commercial channels participated in the 2005 test - Frekvence 1, Evropa 2 and Rádio Impuls – which coincided with the WorldDAB Congress that year in Prague.

Last October the CTU auctioned regional DAB multiplexes, which CRa, Teleko and a Pilzen company RTIcz acquired. There has been a definite lack of excitement from broadcasters. When Czech public radio dropped its popular youth channel CRo Wave from FM, itself a controversial move, it was added to the Prague DAB multiplex in hopes of motivating young people to buy DAB receivers. Among Czech radio anoraks receivers are a big issue; there are simply fewer L-band receivers than Band III receivers on the worldwide market and, until analogue television is completely shut down, Band III multiplex transmission is ready only in Prague. Czech automaker Skoda announced (June 1) it would add DAB radios to the dashboards of three models.

That’s one problem. The other, of course, is the all-encompassing “business model” issue. ”We would love to start it earlier,” said CRa Executive Director Kamila Levinského to digizone.cz (March 15). ”In order to really happen, of course, it will depend on whether we can find a business model.”

“We will of course be aimed at anyone who will be able to finance the broadcast multiplex,” he added.

Financing digital radio multiplexes is a painful discussion for many broadcasters, hardly limited to the Czech Republic. UK commercial broadcasters, the BBC and the government have been locked in negotiations for months over who will pay for the final DAB multiplex build-out. Similar discussions are underway in Germany and France.

“The migration to digital platforms must be paid solely by the prospective operator of such platforms,” said Lagardère Czech president Michel Fleischmann. “It is absurd that such activities are paid from state funds, which it doesn’t even have, and there is no reason why these activities should be borne by the taxpayer.” Lagardère Active Radio International (LARI) owns four radio channels in the Czech Republic - Frekvence 1, Evropa 2, Radio Bonton and Dance Rádio. Last February, Lagardère, Londa (owner of Radio Impuls) and Czech public radio formed a lobbying group – Association of Broadcasting Organizations (Asociace Rozhlasovych Organizaci -ARO) – to promote the interests of national radio broadcasters, partly to “promote the transition to digital radio.” To help defray the cost of dual digital and analogue transmission private sector broadcasters would like to see license extensions to 2024.

There could be interest in DAB from communities within the Czech Republic not presently served by broadcast services.  The Russian-speaking community might be interested, said media regulator RRTV Council President Katrina Kalistova to digizone.cz (June 8). “It is true that we’ve had some Russian-speaking businessmen who wish to operate a Russian language radio channel that I though might be broadcast only in digital. The fate of that project, however, is unclear.”

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