DAB: opportunity or fiasco

Michael Hedges February 19, 2009

The digital radio alternative known as DAB has shown itself to have more lives than a cat. Millions of euros have been thrown at it. Lots of channels are on the air; new ones coming on, some giving up. Radio listeners continue to yawn.

A new DAB channel will take to the airwaves in London March 2nd. Colourful Radio will debut an eclectic mix of jazz, r ‘n’ b, soul and raggae with “informative debate on topical issues,” according to the press release. Two of the UK’s more ‘colorful’ radio characters are in charge - Gordon McNamee of Kiss FM and Henry Bonsu from the BBC.The channel is making the leap from broadcasting online to DAB. For a leap into the stratosphere they might consider Kelvin MacKenzie as weather forecaster.

The UK is the most developed market for DAB. Unlike continental Europeans, British radio listeners have acquired the proper receiving devices in nearly respectable numbers. Recent RAJAR audience surveys shows a fair percentage are tuning in (see here) even though major broadcasters are tuning out (see here).

With all that in mind, Colourful Radio has a chance. And the best broadcasters are far from risk averse. How many new newspaper titles have been launched in the last hundred years?

The most successful of the DAB channels in the UK are specialty products. And many of those are on local multiplexes. People are, in fact, buying DAB receivers to hear something special. That does not make a mass market. UK media analyst Grant Goddard refers to a ‘DAB ghetto’ of niche market channels, operated by those unable to acquire FM licenses. Goddard notes (February 19) how DAB promoters in the UK want no alternative to DAB (Read here).

Outside the UK and, to be fair, Denmark, DAB is as unknown to consumers as it is to sellers of consumer electronics. Several governments have simply given up trying to entice people to change against their will. It was so much easier in the Soviet Union.

Authorities in Spanish Catalonia threw in the towel after throwing €50 million and ten years at DAB, shutting it down last November. A group of Spanish IT geeks nominated DAB for fiasco of the year, discovered by the Guardian’s technology blogger Jack Schofield (February 19).  The Spanish Fiasco Awards Team (FAT), including Fiasco Awards Networkers (FANs), want to point out fiascos “as an essential stage on the road to success.” (www.fiascoawards.com in English, Spanish and Catalan).

The nomination mentions the €50 million spent on DAB in Spain and the €350 million spent across Europe and the abject indifference of consumers and commercial broadcasters. “The reluctance of radio broadcasters did not stop politicians and scientists,” said the FAT nominating committee.

“Only some geniuses and visionaries have been able to create a new market,” concludes the DAB nomination. “The fact that a technology is possible does not necessarily mean that people are willing to pay for it, and the fact that institutions and companies support it does not mean they did the necessary previous research: they were probably just thinking that they didn't want to be left behind.”

Also included in the 2009 nominees are Second Life, Microsoft Vista, one laptop per child and Google Lively. Voting continues through February 25th. Award sponsors include the Catalan Association of Telecommunications Engineers and, of course, Estrella beer.

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