Broadcasters Talk About Talking

Michael Hedges February 20, 2014 Follow on Twitter

There is a theory among professional mediators that negotiations precede only when all parties visualize failure as unacceptable. Time, then, becomes an object bigger than the table or anything on it. But time, like money, is never in abundant supply. And nobody wants to run out of either.

Long past are the days when digital radio was predicted to imminently replace analogue radio of the FM variety. While the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) transmission platform and its variants are far from being relegated to the dustbin of technology, supporters and others with financial interest have moved on. Between changes in media economics and the ubiquity of smartphones, consumers are taking a pause, it would seem, in adopting something new for the sake of something new.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) recently held its irregular digital radio summit, a private affair for public broadcaster members. Gone were forecasts of triumph over the analogue dinosaur. Instead, according to a statement on the EBU website (February 14), “there was general agreement that the successful launch of digital radio requires true cross-industry collaboration.” DAB supporters have been looking for that “successful launch” for 15 years.

Fundamental to national adoption of terrestrial digital broadcasting, DAB now generally replaced by the updated DAB+ standard, is switching off the FM broadcasting band after some period of dual transmission. National regulators in Norway and Denmark have pinpointed, more of less, the demise of radio on FM with those in the UK and Switzerland still hedging their bets. The EBU digital radio supporters see 50% digital radio listening as the “critical threshold.”

Resistance to forcing a change in consumer behavior from private sector radio broadcasters in other European countries has been robust. Where public broadcasting institutions are strongest, generally, the shift from FM broadcasting has certain regulatory support. Otherwise, it’s been a catfight. The public broadcasting supporters of digital radio must now get “the enemy” on board, said EBU Media Director Annika Nyberg Frankenhauser, speaking to the choir.

Polish radio broadcaster RMF Group president Kazimierz Gródek, one of those “enemies”, turned to metaphor, describing digital radio as a “a spectular flop,” a “car with wooden wheels” and “a patient in a vegetative state, kept alive at all costs by the will of the administration and public money,” in Rzeczpospolita (February 18). RMF Group owns and operates commercial channels RMF FM, RMF MAXXX, RMF Classic and RMFon.

Mr. Gródek freely quotes alternative facts in the article: digital radio listening in the UK appears stalled after nearly two decades, FM listening in Denmark remains dominant, only 4.5% of German households have digital radio receivers. “Digitization in France and Spain has been, in practice, stopped and Portugal - after failed attempts – has even given up the technology.” He also mentions the long list of countries where digital radio is off the agenda.

“The essence of the problem,” he said, “lies elsewhere. The benefits of digital radio to listeners are not significant enough to justify buying a new digital receiver.” RMF Group is owned by Bauer Media, which has extensive radio holdings in the UK and stakes in German stations.

Being a commercial radio operator, Mr. Gródek mentioned the money. Polish public radio, which launched digital channels in major cities last year, is spending, he estimated, PLN 26 million (about €6.2 million) annually for the digital radio multiplex and another PLN 50 million annually (about €11.2 million) on program production and support. “Without doubt, the only beneficiary of digitization is the broadcast network operator.”

Mr. Gródek also called for a little constructive dialogue among the digital radio stakeholders. “The failure (of digital radio in Poland) can be explained by the lack of commercial broadcasters involvement. Pressure should be raised on the regulator and government to include commercial broadcasters. Digitization without the participation of commercial broadcasters cannot succeed.”

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