Radio Industry Calls For Analogue Switch-Off Date
The radio industry is calling on the Government to announce a definitive switch-off date for the analogue signal as part of a wider initiative to boost the uptake of digital radio in the UK.
Speaking at an industry seminar yesterday, GWR chairman Ralph Bernard said he had written to Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and Ofcom chief executive Stephen Carter to demand a target date that would enable the entire country to be converted to digital.
The Government is already facing increasing pressure to announce a firm date for switching off the analogue television signal, which is scheduled to take place sometime between 2006 and the end of the decade.
Bernard said: “It is my belief that the time has come for Government to announce a digital switchover for radio, as it has for television. It is the right time to give the industry a boost with a plan for digital radio. It may take ten or fifteen years, but the sooner we start the sooner we’ll finish.”
The latest figures show that more than 400,000 digital radio receivers have been sold in the UK to date, a quarter of them over the Christmas period. Uptake is expected to rise to 1 million by the end of this year and the price of receivers looks set to drop further below the crucial £100 mark.
Bernard, who is also chairman of the Digital Radio Development Bureau, claims the industry is well on the way to creating a new mass market medium, and insists the increasing popularity of digital radio justifies a commitment to analogue switch-off.
He said: “By setting a date when they will start to consider a switchover for radio, Government will provide a target for manufacturers to bring in new products, give broadcasters a timescale for building new digital brands and give us the prospect of stopping the waste and expense of broadcasting our signals on both analogue and digital.”
The switch to digital radio would benefit a range of broadcasters including GWR, which has invested heavily in the medium. The group is the majority shareholder in Digital One, the only national commercial digital radio service, which broadcasts a range of stations including Classic FM. Core and Planet Rock.
Bernard also called on the Government and Ofcom to ensure that the new broadcast spectrum, due to become available shortly, would be used to bring national and local digital radio services to every part of the country.
The GWR boss said: “We must not let the digital divide widen to become a one-way communications street that bypasses large non-metropolitan areas of the country. That would be wasteful and short-sighted, and I’m sure Ofcom would not want to go down that route.”
He added: “To help us build that digital infrastructure we need to see the freedoms promised by the Communications Act come into being, and not have them compromised by over regulation under the clock of maintaining plurality.”
GWR was recently forced to sell its stake in Vibe Radio Services after having its acquisition of Chrysalis-owned Galaxy 101 blocked by the Competition Commission. The move came as a surprise to many in the industry, who believed that the Communications Bill would open the floodgates to a wave of commercial radio mergers and acquisitions.
GWR Group: 020 7284 3000 www.gwrgroup.com
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