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After a Decade, Digital Radio Still an Also-Ran In UK
beschra writes "Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) was developed as early as 1981. After launching in the UK 10 years ago, only 24% of listeners listen on DAB. The article credits a good part of the delay to the fact that the technology was largely developed under the Europe-wide Eureka 147 research project. How does government vs. commercial development help or hinder acceptance of new technology? From the article: '"If Nokia develops something, they'll be bringing out the handsets before you know it," [analyst Grant Goddard says]. "Because DAB was a pan-European development, you had to have agreement from all sides before you could do anything. That meant progress was extremely slow." But this alone did not account for the hold-up. The sheer complexity of introducing and regulating the system was also a major factor, Mr. Goddard adds."'
It couldn't be something to do with the fact that the cheapest DAB radio I can find right now is £35 (£60 if you want something portable), whereas you can get a portable FM receiver for under £5? Nah, it must be to do with the regulations and standards!
which is totally what she said
We were told that you got no interference, you could listen to anything anywhere, it was the wonder radio of your dreams. Load of bollocks as usual. You can't pick it up in cars, they need an external aerial fitted. You get bad reception in a building, the DAB radio has to be near a window. When reception is bad, you don't get silence, you get clunky chunky blocks of noise which makes it un-listenable.
And, I have FM radios that are over 20 years old and working fine. My new DAB radio (£30), bought in May 2009, broke on Monday. I'm not buying a replacement. It's bollocks.
The BBC news article I saw seemed to imply that Freeview had done comparatively well, where as DAB had floundered. I think the difference is in what it provides and what people want. As you said, the main benefit for DAB is the odd radio station that some people might listen to (6 Music, etc), where as Freeview gets you about 10x the channels, better teletext, and things like the "Red Button" on BBC that lets you pick various looping broadcasts of news or different views of sports events etc. Comparatively, it's a no brainer - Freeview gives you something of value extra, where as DAB costs more for a radio and doesn't gain most people very much (and radio probably isn't as important to most people as TV anyway)
Anyone want to argue a private British company could have developed a new radio standard and get it adopted all over Europe in less time? And provide cheap receivers too? No? Thought so.
The real problem with DAB isn't price or features. It's battery life. My FM/LW radio lasts over a month of regular use. A similarly sized portable DAB unit manages about 6-8 hours. Why would I 'upgrade'?
I find the free market plug kinda funny in that instance: if you let the free market decide, you don't get Nokia nor the Euro GSM standard, you get the US mess of incompatible operators and standards, with each company trying to push their agenda, their patent-encumbered techs... How would you like your radio to work in the UK, but not in Ireland ? Or to work on the public channels, but not with some private ones ? Or to work only with tailor-made, more expensive sets ?
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I used to work for a major electronics retailer in the UK, and we didn't even sell DAB radios in my store. Customers would ask if we had them, and my response was one of just a handful of "we don't have/do that" answers that I often gave.
I have to ask, though, what's the point? The BBC has a spectacular online presence in the form of podcasts and iPlayer, so anyone wanting to listen to "digital" radio can probably just as easily go online and listen or hook their computer up to a stereo. Speaking for myself (as I listen to a copy of yesterday's morning show on my computer) I have zero use for a radio, DAB or not--I can listen to BBC streams on my computer at home or work or on my iPod touch, both within Safari and in a stream player application. No need for another 20 quid appliance that will break.
Really, people value the non-interactivity, it's a benefit. Sometimes you just want to fill the background with good enough music / etc. while doing something else (I suspect also not wanting something great - not wanting to be hooked too much); with scheduled short news service every hour a nice bonus (also one you don't have to actively follow, but still be certain that important news will reach you)
This blog post covers it quite nicely:
the vast majority of the radio listeners don't listen to music. They hear music instead. There's a difference. They put the kids on the SUV, and drive them to school, and turn on the radio in the meantime. Or, they're stuck in traffic, pissed off, and need to listen to "easy" music to pass the time. Or, they're sitting on their sofa, reading a magazine, and have the radio ON as a background.
Very few people actually drive somewhere in order to turn on the radio and listen to music. Or sit on their sofa, closing their eyes, and listen to just music. Normal people instead, are so busy with their lives, their problems, the quick pace of this civilization, that simply don't have the time to discover new music. Listening to unknown kind of melodies, or new kinds of sub-genres altogether, takes them out of their comfort zone. Listening to something like Dan Deacon instead of Lady Gaga, for example, while the kids shout at each other at the back of the car, makes it difficult to level your head. Not only you have your problems, but you have this new 'annoying' music playing instead of the music (or kind of music) you already know so well.
Basically, commercial radio works as a kind of a depressant for the masses. At first, it feels like music is exactly the opposite: an excitement that is, but in reality, in the large scheme of things, as far as FM radio is concerned, it's nothing but one of the ways that helps you kept in check. No, this is not a conspiracy theory, it's just how things work. Listeners want it that way too.
That's also BTW why any possible benefits of DAB are probably irrelevant - people are happy with very few stations already. For anything more there are ways you mention.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Freeview also allows broadcasters to overcompress signals to the point that any motion breaks the picture into blocks, ITV are a fan of this technique though, tbh, that doesn't really impair the viewing experience, if anything it's an improvement. The idea that the red button "lets you pick various looping broadcasts of news or different views of sports events etc" is absolute bollocks, it was once the idea but now we're down to a single channel to host BBC red button content, it's woefully inadequate, though i suppose they may be diverting resources for freeview-HD, who knows.
The difference between TV and radio is that the people to whom radio is important are capable of seeing the limitations of the new platform, those whose lives revolve around TV have trouble not drooling into their coco-pops while they watch jeremy kyle, they'll buy into anything that's new and shiny without question, especially if itv launches an interactive multi-angle bastard cam to watch jez belittle people on.
So relatively few people have them that the cost to society of abandoning DAB and finding something that works properly is negligible. Do it. Do it now. Don't let people buy into a failed experiment.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Only those with a vested interest are pushing it (which unfortunately includes the government because they see the opportunity to make money by flogging off the frequency spectrum currently used by FM).
The really funny thing is, when they come to sell the FM space, no one will want it as no doubt the pirates will take it over.
There are millions of FM receivers in this country, and at some point they will all be purposefully obsoleted at once. People will inevitably step up to fill this void, and suddenly the radio waves will be full of stations not wanting to listen to regulators.
And I can't wait. The playlist-format that dominates radio stations these days make listening to them very annoying - the same records over and over. Hell, the same stations all over the dial - the other day I was waiting for a mate in the car, and was bored, so skipped through FM 0.1MHz at a time, to see what pirate stations were around. At least 3 different frequencies were exactly the same station, all with different RDS names. And even the independent places all play the same shitty pop-music.
Fuck the commercial radio stations, bring on the pirates! DAB may well be the best thing that happens to UK radio in years, but not for the reasons the DAB crowd want it to be.
Because if you don't needlessly spend all your income (plus some more on credit^Wdebt cards) then the terrorists will win, the commies will come to power, paedophiles dressed as foxes will come and eat your children (opening the window on the way in - so that isn't your responsibility), the sky will fall in, your children will end up going out with someone with dark skin, or poor (or both!). And something to do with Raoul Moat.
Now buy a replacement DAB radio for every radio in your ownership (but don't listen to that leftist propaganda that is the BBC).
And buy a DAB+ a year later. Then a DAB++. Then DAB+HD. Then DAB3D. Then DAB3DHD.... you get the picture.