5.1.1 DAB

Sete milhões de receptores DAB vendidos até agora

May 22: The latest digital radio sales figures are in - and they show that after 10 years there are now seven million DAB sets sold in the UK. After a very slow start, the DAB digital radio sets are now being bought at a rate of two million per year, thanks to a growth over the Christmas period of 28 per cent.

O DAB também é portátil

The ongoing success of DAB has continued to drive a resurgence in the UK Portable Radio market. Since the launch of DAB, approximately 9.4 million Portable Radios, of all types, have been sold. This has resulted in the yearly market value growing from a consistent annual turnover of around £30m (2000-2002) to just under £78m in 2007.   

In the first quarter of 2008, sales of DAB compatible models accounted for 81% of the value of the Portable Radio market. With the average price of a DAB radio now dropping below £50 (March 2008), it is the continued unit growth of DAB Portable radios that has resulted in the sectors' current value performance.

O DAB faz parte do futuro da rádio?

«For her, DAB remained "part of the digital future of radio". She said it was "easy to use and portable". She could have meant in contrast to internet radio, which Hazlitt flagged up as an alternative investment for GCap.

Then again, in "giving listeners more choice and a range of additional features such as programme related information and storage", some more of her praise for the platform, DAB will always trail the web alternative. Her initial comments were closely followed by a joint statement with 4 Digital chairman Nathalie Schwarz, whose own upcoming DAB project has seen its own problems. Channel 4 has dropped one of its planned stations and delayed the launch of the others from early this year to next, while a proposed Sky News Radio was axed before it started. Nevertheless, she and Abramsky stated their DAB confidence in solidarity: "It is clear to us that DAB has an exciting future in a fast converging UK media industry."» fonte: «Thursday, 27 March 2008 DAB UK - Scary Scenario

GB questiona-se sobre o futuro digital

«There are in fact three forms of digital radio. DAB is compatible with mobile phones and good for portable radio sets and - in theory -cars, although no carmakers install it yet. Lots of people listen to radio via their TVs through their Sky or Freeview boxes because it's easy to use the remote control and saves buying another piece of kit. And others like to listen via their PC, where digital radio is broadcast via the internet. Virgin Radio chief executive Richard Huntingford says: "Radio will become a digital medium, but it's a brave person in these early stages that decides which platform it is that consumers are going to adopt." (...) Broadband has its transmission costs too, and unlike DAB, the more listeners you have, the more it costs to reach them. Oneword spent £15,000 a year streaming over the web to 50,000 listeners. Classic FM has 5.6m listeners. If each of them tuned in online, the transmission cost would be well over £1.5m. But broadcasting to digital radio sets is still too expensive. To bring the price down, say those companies still in digital, the broadcast map must be restructured. Ofcom needs to reshuffle the way spectrum is allocated so that there are fewer transmission points. At the moment, regional broadcast licences overlap with local ones, and there are too many slots for too few stations. At the same time, in some areas there is undersupply, and a number of popular small town stations can't find room on their local digital service. John Myers, chief executive of the Guardian Media Group's radio business, says digital may have a future, but it needs surgery. "Everyone is committed but there has to be change. We will only know for sure if there is a future for DAB if people want it without fear of loss of licence." The medium has a future, but it requires lower transmission costs, better content and better marketing. Without these changes, the only sound coming out of Britain's digital radio sets will be birdsong» How radio killed the digital star Telegraph17/02/2008

DAB chega à Australia

«The countdown to Australia's national foray into digital radio has begun, with a launch date of Jan. 1, 2009, leaving less than a year for the government to sign up broadcasters on Eureka 147-based DAB multiplexes eventually slated for 109 markets across the continent.

Australia's commercial broadcasters plan to embrace a DAB+ standard for digital radio from the beginning of rollout, thus avoiding legacy compatibility issues with older DAB layer 2 coding technology, a problem now facing commercial programmers in the UK, where interest in commercial DAB is said to be flagging.

Altogether, the Australian radio industry reportedly plans to invest $400 million over several years phasing in the new national DAB service, scheduled to debut in 11 key cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra. Government sponsored public radio services will also be carried on the multiplexes. »

O DAB em retrocesso na GB?

« (...) Even as the future of Digital One, owned by GCap and the infrastructure provider Arqiva, is under scrutiny, plans are being drawn up for a second national “multiplex” for the commercial sector, headed by Channel 4 Radio. (...) All the uncertainty and a vortex of conflicting interests have simply amplified a debate on the future of digital radio – a technology that is being taken up much later in the day by consumers than digital television – and whether it is now at the brink of a “Freeview” moment of immense growth, or a “Betamax” moment of consumer abnegation. Some industry experts such as Richard Wheatley, chief executive of The Local Radio Company, see Digitial Audio Broadcasting (DAB) as radio’s equivalent of Betamax, a failed technology in the face of a mass of better alternatives»

Não, diz a BBC: «Following yesterday's news from GCap Media, the BBC and 4 Digital Group have joined forces to confirm their commitment to develop digital radio in the UK. Both parties will look at ways to encourage more rapid consumer take-up of the technology ahead of 4 Digital's launch in the next 12 months»

«Millions of people who have invested in new digital radios were yesterday wondering whether they would be left with little more than expensive ornaments after Britain's biggest commercial radio group all but abandoned the medium. The owner of Capital Radio, Classic FM and Xfm was an enthusiastic champion of digital audio broadcasting (DAB) under its previous management, spending an estimated £80m on new transmitters and stations.»

«Ms Hazlitt, the former Virgin Radio chief, said GCap had spent around £8m a year on digital radio, but had failed to recoup the investment. It is a marked change in strategy for GCap, which under its former chief executive Ralph Bernard, championed DAB. Ms Haz-litt said: "We believe the future for the new GCap is on FM and broadband. FM remains the backbone of the radio industry and on quality compares favourably to any other platform." The latest Rajar figures show that DAB accounts for 9 per cent of all listening, digital radio alone for 4 per cent and online – in which GCap is now placing its faith – for just 1.9 per cent, even though many more households have broadband than have DAB radio sets.»

O DAB pode acabar como o betamax e o video (GB)

«Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) may end up to radio what Betamax was to video, warns a report published today. The report, by media and telecoms specialist Enders Analysis, said the launch of the second national commercial digital radio multiplex, headed by Channel 4, might exacerbate the problems rather than solve them, and warned that media regulator Ofcom would face a public outcry if DAB failed. Enders Analysis added that the high cost of DAB transmission and slow growth in revenue had combined to undermine confidence in the new medium and led to the closure of a string of national digital stations. Today's report urged the radio sector to "stop continually beating its chest in public about the wonders of DAB and instead partake in an honest industry debate about the future of the platform". "The exodus of stations from the DAB platform is starting to look like a stampede," said the Enders report, written by Grant Goddard.»

«Digital sets are at risk of becoming obsolete unless sales pick up, industry analysts warned yesterday. That would mean they follow a host of other gadgets - such as Betamax video cassettes and mini-disc audio players, which were bought by millions but are now mere curiosities. Although 6.5million digital radios have been bought since 1999, it is not enough for broadcasters to recoup their costs.  And unlike in TV, there is no Government approved timeline for an analogue switch-off.  The problem seems to be that despite the huge investment in Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) by commercial stations, many of us are sticking to our old-fashioned analogue sets. Companies are now scrapping digital stations because the number of listeners is too small to justify their running costs. In recent months, longstanding outlets Groove, Oneword and Core have all been been taken off the digital service. »

França recusa DAB e avança para T-DMB

« (...)His comments come as France appears poised to adopt T-DMB technology for digital radio services, even though it was designed for mobile TV. It is an audacious move backed by the Groupement pour la Radio Numérique (Association for Digital Radio), a group of broadcasters whose members have more than 95 per cent of France's domestic audience.  GRN members have already started trial services in Paris, with a nationwide commercial launch planned for Christmas 2008. The French authorities will provide frequencies in the VHF (Band III) and Band L range.  The GRN is plumping for T-DMB, rather than DAB+, because its members believe that multimedia services will play an important part in the future of radio. Unless radio becomes interactive and adds pictures, they say, it will die a slow, but inevitable death. "Digital radio cannot only be digital sound - it needs to have the right functionalities to compete with other digital offerings," says Anichini. These include a screen, rich data, synchronization between data and sound and high audio quality. I am one of those who believe that radio’s unique advantage is that you can listen to it whilst doing other things. The challenge facing mobile TV, in contrast, is to convince consumers that it is not a “sit-back” medium. Nevertheless, the GRN perceives mobile TV as a real threat to the future of radio. For this reason, they argue that radio needs to be in DMB-equipped mobile phones. Samsung will provide the phones. However, Nokia, which prefers the rival DVB-H technology, is unlikely to follow suit. Instead, the Finnish giant is offering a free Internet Radio download for all Nokia phones running the Series 60 operating system. The service, which allows users to browse for radio programmes by genre, language, country, or name, will be installed on new phones. The fact that GRN broadcasters are demanding more bits for DMB services will further restrict competition. However, Nokia's Internet Radio could have a significant Long Tail effect by allowing small stations squeezed out by the GRN a real opportunity to reach new audiences. This leads us to the other question mark against the French strategy: is multimedia really the future of radio? Despite massive investment, commercial broadcasters in the UK have so far failed to launch any truly successful services. Multimedia is undoubtedly a sexy addition to radio, but can it really compete with the sophisticated services already available on the Internet? Many outside France, including foreign regulators and receiver manufacturers, have condemned the GRN’s controversial decision to adopt T-DMB for radio services. But perhaps the French are the ones who are seeing furthest into the future. If you build a network capable of transmitting DMB audio, it is easy to convert it to deliver DMB video. However, if you build a DAB+ network, there is no migration path to the brave new world of multimedia services. I suspect this is a question of culture, rather than technology. Different choices - T-DMB or DAB+ - may be appropriate in different countries.»

 fonte: «Re-thinking radio's digital future», Mike Mullane, 4/12/07

Mais: «Sachant que les expériences de RNT lancées en Espagne, en Italie et en Allemagne n'ont pas rencontré un franc succès public - la Grande-Bretagne a depuis longtemps adopté une autre norme que celle retenue par la France -, Christine Albanel n'a pas manqué de souligner, mercredi 5 décembre : "La France est l'un des premiers pays européens à se lancer, et je ne doute pas que nous ferons rapidement école." Ce qui pourrait participer à la "massification" de la radio numérique.»; Le numérique offrira des possibilités nouvelles à l'auditeur.
RETOUR EN ARRIÈRE :
permet d'écouter, depuis le début, une émission alors même qu'elle est en cours de diffusion.
PAUSE :
possibilité d'arrêter puis de reprendre l'écoute là où on l'avait laissée.
TÉLÉCHARGEMENT (OU PODCAST) :
permet d'enregistrer un programme et de l'écouter à n'importe quel moment.
SERVICES SUPPLÉMENTAIRES :compléments d'information (titres et interprètes, bibliographies, photos et vidéos, etc.), météo, horoscope, applications interactives...

MAIS:

«"Il est dommage que les pouvoirs publics, français et européens, n'accordent pas plus de place à la radio numérique terrestre (RNT) dans leurs discours", a regretté Jean-Paul Cluzel, président de Radio France, en ouverture du 10^e Forum international du son multi-canal qui s'est tenu, à Paris, les 25 et 26 octobre. "Dans quelques mois, la France assurera la présidence de l'Union européenne. C'est donc le bon moment pour dialoguer entre pays européens pour une Europe de la radio numérique", a-t-il ajouté. (...) Encore faut-il que les autorités françaises acceptent la norme actuellement utilisée en Angleterre (DAB +) en plus de celle que prônent les grands diffuseurs français (T-DMB). Les deux sont compatibles. La Commission européenne attend une réponse avant le 16 novembre. Viendra ensuite la bataille pour récupérer des fréquences dans un contexte de pénurie. Pas sûr en effet que les quelques 1 000 radios françaises trouvent leur place dans le nouveau paysage numérique. »

Mais: «According to Wikipedia: "DMB was developed in South Korea under the national IT project and the world's first official DMB broadcast started in South Korea in 2005, although trials were available much earlier." Trials are also being run in Germany, Italy, Norway, Indonesia and other places.
DMB and DAB+ are almost identical. However, the need to allow for images means DMB is about 35% less efficient than DAB+, reckons DRT. The French will therefore get fewer stations or a lower audio quality than they would have got with DAB+.
Steve Green, who runs Digital Radio Tech, reckons the only solution to the radio problem is to provide "over the air" (OTA) software updates so that radios can be upgraded to cope with whatever new systems are introduced. This type of approach works with Wi-Fi radios.»

O Dab é uma desilusão (GB)?

«We have the worst of both worlds. DAB could offer better sound quality, but the quality has been reduced below FM levels to make room for more stations, and it's still falling. DAB could offer better programs, but the broadcasters are on a hiding to nothing if they switch people from a few profitable FM stations to many unprofitable DAB stations (expensive to run, small audiences, very little advertising).

Finally, the UK's DAB system is old and technically obsolete, and I think it will eventually have to be replaced with the new world standard, DAB+. That was the point of my original attack. At the time, I thought that switching to the much more efficient DAB+, which will allow more stations and higher quality at lower cost, was DAB's best hope. Now I wonder if even that will be enough.»

O DAB no Reino Unido

«O caso inglês trazido por Nathalie Schwarz, directora da Channel 4, no Reino Unido, dá conta que, também no sector da rádio há mercados onde as potencialidades do digital e da rádio nesta nova plataforma já são percepcionadas como uma oportunidade de "trazer a rádio para um ambiente multimédia." Os números de penetração da rádio digital - via Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) - são disso emblemáticos. "Em 2012 todos os lares [no Reino Unido] estarão preparados para o digital. A penetração da banda larga é já de 50% e a rádio digital já marca presença em 20% dos lares", refere a responsável pelo desenvolvimento pela rádio e o DAB multimedia no Channel 4.» fonte: NAB: Colocar a rádio onde está a carteira, Meios e Publicidade, 6 de Novembro de 2007, por Ana Marcela

DAB atinge metade dos britânicos em 2010

«Half the UK population will have access to to DAB digital radio in two and a half years time. That's the news from the Digital Radio Development Bureau, with a 58% penetration expected by 2011.
The DRDB’s new five-year forecast puts household penetration at 21% by the end of 2007, and 30% by the end of 2008, rising to 40% in 2009, 50% in 2010, and 58.5% by the end of 2011.
DAB digital radio set sales are expected to realise 17% growth in 2007, with more than two million units sold at a value of £170 million. Growth rises to 26% in 2008 with 2.6 million units sold at a value of £200 million. This delivers a cumulative forecast of approximately 9.2 million products sold by the end of 2008, with DAB products commanding 28% of the overall market by volume and 35% by value in 2008.
There are indications from many sources – Rajar, Ofcom, BBC, RadioCentre – that the traditional face of radio listening is changing. This is impacting significantly on the overall radio set sales market (analogue and DAB) with certain form factors, such as boomboxes, audio systems and personals, in decline, while others, such as MP3 players and docking stations (with radio included) are on the rise.
Says DRDB chief executive, Ian Dickens: “Already we are starting to see DAB digital radio appear in some of these new form factors, and while it is important to continue to see successful growth in traditional radio products, DAB’s longer-term future lies in the penetration of these new products, along with in-car and mobile phones. Over the coming months, the DRDB will be changing its shape and focus to ensure that radio moves swiftly down this road.”»

fonte: «DAB to reach 50% by 2010», Radiotoday.com, 24/9/07

O primeiro rádio DAB de bolso

«O iAudio D2 da Cowon é o primeiro mini rádio DAB do mundo. Apesar de ter o tamanho de uma caixa de fósforos, o iAudio D2 tem um tuner DAB full band III, além de rádio FM. Ele também toca músicas em formatos e toca vídeos MP4 e XviD com a sua tela touchscreen de 2.5?. O iAudio D2 vem com 4 GB ou 8 GB de capacidade, e se isto for pouco para você, ele também tem um slot para cartões SD HC. Segundo a Cowon, a bateria dura até 52 horas tocando arquivos MP3, 10 horas de vídeos e 12 horas escutando rádio DAB. A versão com 4 GB está à venda na Advanced MP3 Players da Inglaterra por £169.99 ou £189.99 com um cartão SD de 4 GB. E se você preferir, a Cowon também tem uma versão do D2 sem a funcionalidade de rádio DAB. (fonte: «O Rádio DAB de Bolso», IPJornal, 04/09/07) 

Para que o DAB sobreviva (e suas limitações)

«Countries with a significant investment in DAB and an installed base of consumer equipment will proceed with DAB. However, the emergence of new standards may create confusion and disrupt digital radio implementation in some countries as regulators and planners re-evaluate the potential of each technology. Enabling regulation is not yet in place in many countries. The rate of technology migrations will increase and users will become accustomed to shrinking product life cycles, multi-standard devices, and hybrid functionality. Without significant economic or technical obstacles, radio broadcasters have flexibility within the DAB family of standards to offer a combination of services. The key issue will be management of the installed base of receiving equipment. Multiple platforms will coexist. DAB and DRM technologies can be implemented in a complementary way.

Consensus of all key industry players is necessary to drive radio digitalisation: Government regulators, public service and commercial broadcasters, network operators, and automobile manufactures. Marketing and coordination at national and international levels has not been sufficient in many cases.»

fonte: Public Radio in Europe, Conclusions and Outlook, EBU/UER, Junho 2007, pág 1

«DAB transmission was widely considered as expensive and uneconomic especially for commercial and community stations, when the costs were compared to analogue transmission or to alternative digital broadcasting systems. - DAB also had problems with coverage. In the UK and Denmark, it had become obvious that community radio and small commercial stations were not suited to the existing coverage patterns of DAB multiplexes. All the Irish respondents agreed that DAB coverage would not be compatible with the needs of local radio stations»

fonte: Public Radio in Europe, Conclusions and Outlook, EBU/UER, Junho 2007, pág 3

O contexto para a liderança do DAB na GB

«The business case for digital, particularly in a consolidated market, has been made in the UK and whether its DAB – or DVB in the future – the UK will remain a digital radio leader because of the vested interests of all sectors of the radio market. It is now no longer about doing DAB ‘because you have to’ but because it makes economic and market sense.[1]

DAB’s slow, and often strangled, birth is closely related to the lack of a business model across most European markets – except the UK. (...). The real audience break through for DAB in the UK was in 2004 and ironically came through TV – and today up to 17 million people listen to radio via digital television – many discovering the new DAB stations there.

The DAB story might be a cautionary one for anyone doing future studies. No-one in 1996 predicted that TV would play a positive part in securing the future of digital radio and many European broadcasters lost millions on DAB pilots and projects.» (Shaw, 2005: 5)

---

[1] Paul Robinson in MediaGuardian, 31/10/05, attributes national digital radio to the all time high of 10.5% for commercial, national radio. By May 2006 DAB only stations were showing audiences up to 100,000 like EMAP’s 3C and ‘Fun Radio’.

O DAB e as (boas) audiências na GB

«Radio listening figures are on the up, according to Rajar, the radio industry analysts. Almost 600,000 more people tuned in between April and June this year than for the same period last year. But that's not the most interesting statistic: for the first time, listening habits were broken down to reveal how many people still tuned in to The Archers on their wireless, and how many were sampling the delights of both mainstream and little-known radio stations via digital radio (DAB) or through their mobile phones.

Listening figures for both have increased exponentially in the last year, with 6.09 million people in the UK listening to shows available solely on digital radio compared to 905,000 four years ago. Meanwhile, 4.4 million people over the age of 15 claiming they have listened to radio on their phone, a 27 per cent rise in the last year, with the largest group of mobile-phone radio listeners aged between 15 and 24. This latter statistic is something of a surprise, as the reception quality of analogue radio on mobile handsets is notoriously patchy, but it seems likely that youngsters are listening to radio on their phones for relatively short periods of time, perhaps while waiting for a bus, or to check on sports results at weekends. (...) "Old" media is alive and well, it seems; it's just finding new ways of reaching its audience.»

fonte: «How digital radio came of age», Telegraph, Claudine Beaumont, 25/08/07

A qualidade do DAB continua em discussão (GB)

Apesar de...

«Ofcom therefore got ICM to conduct a poll in January to find out what users thought. They interviewed 677 DAB listeners, and "81% of all respondents rated sound quality as either excellent or good, with a further 14% rating it as average. Only 3% rated it as poor or very poor, with 2% who said they didn't know." What Ofcom calls "DAB hi-fi owners" (listeners who defined themselves as such) had the same response "with 83% rating quality as excellent and a further 12% as average"»

a verdade é que há quem pense na GB que:

«This is, of course, nonsense. The current quality of DAB in the UK - which is broadcast at low bit rates using an inefficient MP2 codec - is provably worse than FM. But I don't think that DAB radio owners have cloth ears. DAB does have advantages in eliminating background hiss and avoiding the signal interference that can afflict FM unless you use a decent aerial. However, the most popular DAB radios are mono models with small speakers, and most listening is done in the kitchen on table-top radios that can't offer proper stereo imaging. You can't honestly evaluate audio quality on that basis.»

Daí que o autor conclua que «The UK is still on course to have the worst radio in the world.»

excertos tirados de «Ofcom is still clueless when it comes to DAB radio», Jack Schofield, Thursday May 10, 2007, The Guardian

Por que é que o DAB não é o sucesso (esperado?) na GB

Se:

«(...) Rajar believes digital radio listening made up 12.5% by the end of last year, and may have stalled slightly given that it was 11% the year before and 6% in 2004 (...). Ken Garner, a radio expert from Glasgow Caledonian University, is more unequivocal. "The forecasts are totally delusional and probably driven by wishful thinking by the government about what it would like to do with the analogue frequencies. The numbers are based on hoped-for take up and not on evidence."»

O que está a correr menos bem (ou mal...): (excertos)

- digital radio sets have never become cheap enough.

- Car manufacturers have been slow to put digital radios in their products. With digital radio even slower to take off in Europe, many manufacturers have taken the view that it was not worth catering for the UK alone. FOR those with second-hand cars, meanwhile, upgrading to digital radio has meant getting sets specially fitted and in some cases has not been possible at all.

- Another issue has been quality. As Mark Mulligan, a vice-president of Jupiter Research, says: "The sound quality is significantly inferior to that of FM. For example, Radio 3 listeners have complained vociferously about it You are never going to attract the audio buffs."

- Not everyone agrees that quality is a problem, but it is harder to argue with complaints about weak signals. This does not just lead to the background noise of FM radio, but means that the station cuts out altogether. There are also those that point out that the UK's digital audio broadcast (DAB) standard of digital radio has been overlooked in many countries in favour of more recent formats, and that buyers risk being saddled with outdated technology.

- Then there is a debate about whether the stations have been enticing enough. While the likes of BBC6 Music and OneWord, which includes a show with newsreader Jon Snow, have attracted their followers, there has arguably been nothing to compare with Freeview's Film Four or E4 as essential extras. Ken Garner says: "There are very few totally new formats. Most of the stations offered around the country are just imports of successful brands already operating in FM."

- Beyond this there has clearly been a problem with marketing. The Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB), which markets on behalf of all digital broadcasters, only spends £2 million a year, which is a fraction of what a blue-chip company would spend on a major marketing campaign.

fonte: «Analogue radio could be history by 2020 … if Ofcom wins the day», Sunday Herald, 22/04/07 By Steven Vass,

O relatorio

Desligar o analógico para forçar o digital (GB)

«THE DAYS of analogue radio could finally be numbered, at least if you believe the report published by Ofcom last week. After years of tip-toeing around the subject, the regulator gave the strongest sign yet that it would switch off the FM and medium wave signals and make old radios obsolete. With plans to review medium wave and FM in 2009 and 2012 respectively, medium wave could go in the latter year and FM is unlikely to be around beyond the end of that decade. This will be possible because by that time, Ofcom believes, digital radio will finally have come of age. It expects about half of all radio listening to be digital by 2012 and about 90% by 2017. These numbers had many radio observers swallowing hard. While Freeview took off like a rocket on the back of cheap set-top boxes promising attractive new television channels, digital radio is still a minority interest. According to Ofcom's numbers it now makes up 20% of radio listening through a combination of digital radio, television and the internet, compared to 16% late last summer. And while this compares woefully with the over four-fifths of households that have digital television, figures by radio measurement body Rajar suggest the real number might be even lower. Rajar believes digital radio listening made up 12.5% by the end of last year, and may have stalled slightly given that it was 11% the year before and 6% in 2004. Whatever the truth, it clearly still has a steep mountain to climb to become an essential accessory in the majority of homes. Patrick Hannon, a manager at Spectrum Strategy Consultants, says: "The numbers do seem high. You would probably need to have switched off medium wave and announced that FM is going to be switched off to get to 90% digital radio listening by 2017."

fonte: «Analogue radio could be history by 2020 … if Ofcom wins the day», Sunday Herald, 22/04/07 By Steven Vass,

O relatorio

O digital na GB é um caso especial

«The digital revolution and the expansion of new ways of accessing information through the internet has given a huge boost to one of the older and more traditional forms of electronic media - the radio. According to figures released yesterday, the digital age has created a new golden age of radio, with the number of listeners in Britain at a record high of more than 45 millionevery week. The figure for the last three months of 2006 is the highest since Radio Joint Audience Research (Rajar) began compiling records in 1992, and is attributed to growing numbers of people tuning in on the internet, digital television and mobile phones. Rajar said almost 8 per cent of people aged 15 and above listen to the radio on their mobile phones, a 24 per cent increase over the same period of 2005. A quarter of 15- to 24-year-olds said they tuned in this way. Listening over the internet rose by 10 per cent and by 9 per cent on digital television. Podcasts are also more popular. More than two million people, the equivalent of 17 per cent of all owners of MP3 players, listen to the audio downloads - a rise of 15 per cent on the previous three months. The figures are likely to rise as more content is made available as a podcast. Jenny Abramsky, the BBC's director of audio and music, said: "It proves radio still plays an incredibly important part in people's lives and, despite the range of new media available, listeners continue to value the close relationship they have with radio." (...) Radio 2 remains the nation's favourite station with an audience of 13.27 million - up 530,000 in three months. (...) Radio 1's audience of 10.26 million was down 320,000 on the previous quarter, which the station attributed to a seasonal dip. (...) Jane Thynne, a broadcasting critic and writer, said BBC radio was benefiting more from the digital era than television. "The figures show that early adopters are prepared to embrace what has traditionally been seen as the more fustier of mediums. "Radio, as something which is intensely personal, is also a much more suitable medium for podcasting than television... It's essentially what radio has been doing for a long while anyway."»

fonte: The Independent, «Radio enters a new golden age as digital use takes off», Terry Kirby, 02 February 2007

O DAB, cada vez mais britânico (bem e mal)

Os sinais são evidentes:

«UK media regulator Ofcom today kicked off the race for the UK's second national digital radio multiplex. The license will allow the winning bidder run up to 10 national digital radio stations for a period of 12 years. The spectrum being auctioned can also be used for a range of other services, such as mobile television, said Ofcom.» (AFX News Limited, Ofcom to auction second national digital radio license
12.01.06, 8:27 AM ET)

«The RadioScape RSC03 is a complete DAB/FM clock radio subsystem that only requires an external DC power supply, speaker, LCD display, button board, and enclosure to complete the product. The need for a motherboard is eliminated as the power supply and audio amplifiers are fully integrated into the subsystem. This reduces the manufacturing steps to just one assembly run. Its construction and compact form factor makes it suitable for many enclosure designs.»

Mas nem todos positivos:

«(...) Many British listeners - especially aficionados of classical music stations - claim that DAB sounds worse than FM radio. The problem for broadcasters is that quality costs money and they are under pressure to make savings. They must balance the importance of sound quality against the cost of providing new services. BBC engineers originally estimated that 256 kbit/s was about right for a high quality stereo broadcast signal. But in the end they only had enough bandwidth to provide five stereo services at 192 kbit/s and two mono services at 96 kbit/s. Some commercial stations are even managing to run services at 48 kbit/s, which is roughly AM quality. On the plus side, this means more choice, which apparently is what the vast majority of listeners want. Londoners, for example, can choose between more than 50 DAB services, many of which are not available in either AM or FM. Consequently, there are more DAB radios in Britain than anywhere else in the world. An obvious solution would be to upgrade to a more efficient codec, but the UK is paying the price for all its early success with digital radio. British DAB uses a relatively inefficient MPEG-1 Layer II codec, although the World DMB Forum (formerly the World DAB Forum) is promoting AAC+ .» (fonte: «The future of radio»)