Dumbfounded by Digital

Michael Hedges May 3, 2010 - Follow on Twitter

What began as catching that innovative wave, digital means have come to the media realm. Transformative has been the change from waves to ones and zeros just as wired to wireless has transformed the telephone. Convergence hasn’t been easy, leaving many in media dumbfounded by continued resistance to digital reality.

“We do find ourselves rather dumbfounded by the continued interest of governments to invest in DAB, with - so it seems at least - increased interest after a bit of a lull, in which DAB seemed to be emitting a death rattle in many countries. Do you have any logical explanation for this?” asked a private sector radio broadcaster association representative in a recent email. “Is there something we overlooked?”

Digital radio has been a struggling concept. For a medium with high – and growing – audience penetration, radio broadcasting seems stuck in analogue-land. The digital audio broadcasting (DAB) standard was invented nearly 25 years ago and since then every broadcaster has chanted the phrase “the future is digital” until it’s become meaningless.

There is no death-rattle for DAB, its successor standard DAB+ or its variants. These are robust technical standards invented to bring more efficient digital audio to transmitted broadcast signals. There are others – HD Radio/IBOC, DRM, et.al.. The goal, lo those many years ago, was to bring MPEG2 audio to radio.

Very quickly other goals interfered with supposedly interference-free digital radio. At the same time – the last decade of the last century – FM just hummed along. Since broadcast transmissions are regulated to prevent total chaos on the airwaves, governments needed to come up with policies.

More clear cut was policy for digital television transition. Analogue TV took a huge part of the radio spectrum, parts mobile telecom users wanted. Digital TV took less spectrum and could be moved up the dial, so to speak. Consumers could be enticed to buy new TV receivers with the promise of more free-to-air channels, not to forget rebates for ditching the old box. Quality improved, HDTV possible and now, by golly, 3D TV is in the air. Governments got happy punters entertained with 500 channels, not to forget fortunes auctioning the old TV spectrum to mobile telecoms.

Digital radio transition offered all of this and less. Consumers were pitched improved audio quality, more channels and interactivity. Compared with standard analogue FM, audio quality wasn’t empirically greater. Where digital-only radio channels were launched many were cheap to produce, music-only juke-boxes; hardly a selling point with personal music players springing onto the market. Interactivity never materialized. The tiny bit of spectrum occupied by analogue FM isn’t big enough to attract the luxury buyers fueled by venture capital. To governments, saving digital radio looked like too much work and far too much money. The resounding decision was to “let the marketplace decide.”

Policy makers knew, at least in 2002 and probably earlier, digital radio would have a tortured birth. UK media analyst and stubborn DAB critic Grant Goddard, in a blog post, revisited a study prepared in 2002 for the European Commission (EC) “Digital switchover in broadcasting.” (See Grant Goddard’s notes here) “There is no specific (advantage) in digital radio, no killer application, nobody buys digital receivers, the audience remains negligible, and prices stay high,” said the BIPE Consulting report to the EC.

“Digital radio will probably be delivered through a much larger variety of technologies and platforms than analogue radio, which is essentially terrestrial,” concludes the BIPE report. “These will involve broadcasting or point-to-point, online or on-air, satellite, terrestrial or cable delivery, DAB, DVB or DRM technologies. These techniques will be competitors but very complementary for consumers and broadcasters.”

“The market for digital radio is hardly taking off,” opened the EC’s own working paper on digital radio (DG INFOS: Regulatory Treatment of Digital Radio in the Member States – 2002). “Market players have requested greater support from national and European authorities. They claim that, whereas digitization of radio is in the public interest, national authorities would be partially responsible for the difficulties and delays of the process.”

“The industry claims critical mass is necessary for the success of digital radio in Europe,” the paper continues. “In order to avoid market failure, converging national strategies must be implemented within a certain time frame. This would require European co-ordination.”

The EC concluded that digital radio, unlike digital television, was outside its jurisdiction (“competence”) and, therefore, the problem for national governments. In 2005 former DG Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding “encouraged” Member States to get behind DAB as a single standard. During negotiations to upgrade the EC’s Television Without Frontiers Directive (TVWF) to the Audiovisual Services Directive (AVSD) radio broadcasting was, at one point, considered for inclusion in European rules. Had that happened, the EC could have mandated a transition to digital radio. It didn’t. Appealing to the European Commission for a digital radio fix goes nowhere.

Now the various radio broadcasting stakeholders – digital and otherwise – must negotiate through local, regional and national markets each with specific interests. Without specific coordination at the European level special interests, often formidable, hold all the cards, so to speak, and are holding them close. Digital television transition showed that new revenue streams don’t necessarily follow new offerings. Two public broadcasters that pioneered digital radio offerings – the BBC in the UK and DR in Denmark – have started to reduce digital-only channels. Policy makers – including, presumably, those at national levels – knew nearly a decade ago of the strong possibility for digital radio’s market failure.

Why, then, are some national politicians – as the broadcaster association representative asked -  eager to revisit a digital radio policy, including government investment?

Radio broadcasting is but a tiny part of overall national telecommunications policy. Political interest is never far from the surface. “There are three human motivations: sex, money and power,” said the legendary American broadcaster James C. Hilliard. “Nothing else matters.” Politicians hate being embarrassed. Telling the constituents about millions spent on an interesting idea that didn’t quite work out is just not on. Worse is telling a grandmother the kitchen radio she’s been using for 30 years won’t work. The solution is expensive, but it isn’t their money. One UK politician suggested a “scrappage” program for FM radio receivers similar to the recently used “cash for clunkers” programs used to stimulate automobile sales in Germany. All those useless FM radios could be sent to Africa, he said, colonially oblivious to the rapid uptake of mobile technology taking place in Africa.

None of this means the death of digital radio or the DAB standard. Not only is the future digital but so is the present. The challenge for traditional media, which includes radio, is a transition to platforms outside of their control. The era of radio broadcasters producing their programs for people using a dedicated device – radio receiver – is reaching a transition phase. People hear that audio content on their laptops and mobile phones. One digital radio supporter suggested putting radio chips in refrigerators. It’s digital. It’s different.

Amidst all the clatter from special interests, policy makers have great difficulty keeping up with the technologies of new media and even more difficulty comprehending the implications of more open platforms. Putting digital radio – or digital anything – on hold can appear to be a viable solution. It isn’t.

Now that the European policy heavy lifting of digital television transition is but a memory, the European Commission’s attention is firmly on the Digital Agenda. That means broadband internet, mobile, mobile broadband, wireless internet. As these are the main drivers of the revenue-positive telecom sector, national policies will revolve around them. Broadcasters’ hesitation at the earlier digital transition phases may prove fortuitous but further hesitation could be disastrous.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Digital Radio - Possibilities and Probabilities

Digital radio has many platforms. From broadcast platforms to internet radio and rapidly emerging smartphone platforms, listeners and broadcasters have choices galore and decisions to make. Some regulators have made up their minds, others not, some hedging their bets. This ftm Knowledge file details the possibilities for digital broadcasting and the probabilities for success. Includes Resources 110 pages PDF (August 2010)

Order here