Digital Realists Organize

Michael Hedges March 1, 2006

Digital uptake in Europe seems a rough if not bone-jarring journey. Exceptional in many ways, Switzerland’s digital development mirrors its geography; peaks and valleys, many languages and occasional strong winds. And the trekking has been bright, fair and pleasant, with so many attractive - though narrow - byways. It's been a fantastic trip. Unfortunately, it has only gone around in circles.

This pleasant journey had been "good enough" until restless hoards of consumers beat a broad, wide iPod and YouTube superhighway. The ambling and scrambling of digital dreamers is giving way to tough planning by digital realists.

Swiss digital stakeholders organized themselves in an association called DigitalRadio Switzerland (www.digitalradiodr.ch). Related to similar groups in France and Belgium the group’s primary purpose is to reorient the digital discussion. Moving forward to digital means changing that course, away from a debate pitting supporters of the various digital platforms at odds with each other and toward the unified purpose of making a rapid digital transition.

Jürg Bachmann, president of the Swiss private broadcasters association (Verbandes Schweizer Privatradios – VSP) and General Manager of Energy Zürich, serves as president of the new group. In remarks opening a conference of stakeholders in Luzern called Forum Digital Radio he urged all broadcasters to take seriously the needs of digital switch-over to prevent the consequences of new media platforms taking radios’ established position.

Within the community of radio broadcasters there are digital dreamers, digital realists, digital skeptics and digital deniers. The dreamers have kept us rapt for more than a decade with their inventions and technology driven expectations. Deniers have, largely, disappeared, brought to their knees by international treaties meant to enforce the digital switch. Digital skeptics keep the discussion lively but their arguments lack force in the face of overwhelming evidence that digital broadcasting is the future.

Presentations at Forum Digital Radio were organized around established concerns: regulation, platforms and consumer interest. In addition, presentations outlined digital developments in France, Germany, Austria and Italy.

Broadcasters often charge regulators with either doing too much or doing too little to move forward digital radio. Meeting those charges head-on was Matthias Ramsauer, Vice-Director and head of the Radio and Television division at the Swiss telecom regulator Bundesamtes für Kommunikation (BAKOM). Ramsauer bluntly pointed to the need for broadcasters to move forward with digital migration as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) RRC06 treaties will soon come into force.

BAKOM has drafted a new Law on Radio and Television (LRTV), now in its final version and set for final approval in April, which embraces an “all-platform” regulatory position. Ramsauer noted that BAKOM has vigorously supported several field trials. One part of the new regulatory environment in Switzerland is an attempt at equal frequency distribution between the public broadcaster SSR-SRG idée Suisse (SSR-SRG) and private broadcasters.

Heinz Gantenbein from Swiss-German public broadcaster Schweizer Radio (DRS), a component of SSR-SRG, made the case for DAB. DRS, and SSR-SRG, has made a significant investment in DAB infrastructure, launching several radio channels and proposing more. Gantenbein mentioned the current discussion within Swiss government Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (Departement für Umwelt, Verkehr, Energie und Kommunikation - UVEK) about adopting the newer AACPlus coding layer for DAB.

The DVB-H presentation by Swisscom Broadcast CEO Giovanni Conti unintentionally brought to light one of radio broadcasters greatest digital frustrations: the salience of video. DVB-H, he admitted, covers poorly in automobiles and 4G, a step beyond 3G, would bring greater interactivity. But the interactivity he described seemed shorthand for payment and billing systems. Swisscom Broadcast is the broadcast infrastructure provider in Switzerland and bought Hungarian infrastructure provider Antenna Hungaria.

Think of digital radio as a Swiss Army knife, said Peter Kettner of Bavaria’s media regulator (Bayerische Landeszentrale für neu Medien – BLM), emphasizing that digital radio is multi-standard. The “any time, any place” promise of digital services, he said, risks becoming “any nervana.” Financing, he admits, is an obstacle for countries and their broadcasters.

Kettner, a digital realist, described the DMB projects in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy under the umbrella of MiFriends as a realistic step to providing digital radio services with consumers in mind.

“Let’s work together,” he said, over and over.

“It’s available now,” said iBiquity Digital’s Perry Priestly in presenting the benefits of HD Radio, known in the United States as IBOC (In Band, On Channel). “AM(MW) and FM are not weapons…”against satellite radio and iPods, reinforcing new found fears.

The attending broadcasters listened attentively, though anxiously, as speaker after speaker touted the impending digital revolution. It was as if, polite as they were, they wanted to shout: Enough, already. If digital radio is happening now, where is it?

Realism reached its heights with presentations from a fellow broadcaster, a receiver manufacturer – Panasonic – and the automobile sector, represented by BWM.

Goldbach Media Gruppe CEO Klaus Kappeler presented a daring view of the media future, when most surviving media is digital.  Quoting forecasts from Microsoft and Zenith/Optimedia, he talked of changes in media usage and the effect on advertising. In 1900 media, largely newspapers, occupied people about 10 hours per week. By 2020, say the forecasts, people will use media 90 hours per week, mostly digital. Radio’s portion of the media whole will remain stable only as digital platforms are adopted and new services are developed, such as websites, community radio, corporate radio and digital bundles.

Goldback Media owns radio station Energy Zürich, broadcast sales-house IP Multimedia and internet marketing agency AdLINK.

“Digital radio is the next innovation,” said Urs Fischer, director of Consumer Systems for John Lay Electronics, the Panasonic distributor for Switzerland. He presented an exhaustive range of digital platform receivers from Panasonic, both for home and automobile, and explained various options, including multi-platform receivers, all now available.

Fischer explained Panasonic’s market research on digital radio, mot notably that the greatest competition has been big-screen TV, which now is waning.

No single presentation drew more response. Digital skeptics jumped at the chance to complain about consumer cost and lack of availability. Ralf Reynolds, Marketing Manager for Pure Digital, added that his company also offers a wide range and the in the UK the Pure Digital receivers have already topped the one million mark.

The meetings’ tempo had by this time risen as BMW Group’s Matthias Unbehaun possessed the audience matching the ultimate driving experience with the ultimate radio experience. BMW Group has plans for DAB and DMB, merging the platforms with its full range of automobile electronics. The most direct system integration, Mobile.Info, is still in early stages since, said Unbehaun, the auto industry has 3 to 5 year development cycles. By 2008 BMW will offer in most models an integrated navigation and information system using DAB and DMB platforms.  

As the digital realist initiative gains momentum in Europe pressure is building on three fronts. Regulators, often criticized by radio broadcasters for diminished attention span, want broadcasters to seize the opportunities. As broadcasters move from skeptics to realists, solutions have become paramount. Forum Digital Radio closed with speakers representing broadcasters from the countries surrounding Switzerland offering their views of the way forward.

Philippe Chapot, organizer of the annual Le Radio! conference and expo in Paris, called the digital difficulty “a mess.” Both Chapot and Christian Stögmüller, representing private Austrian broadcasters (Verband der österreichischen Privatsender – VöP) exposed one clear solution – keep it simple.

Previously published in Radio World International, February 2007, in a slightly different form

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